La Société Ciments de l’Atlas (CIMAT), part of the Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF) group, has inaugurated a new cement plant in Diago, Mali.

The production facility was opened last Thursday in the presence of the President of the Republic, Ibrahim Boubacar Kéïta, who cut the symbolic ribbon at the main entrance of the factory in the southeast of the country, a few miles northwest of Bamako.

The plant cost its Moroccan investors more than CFA24bn (US$38m). Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the Diago works has a production capacity of 0.5Mta, which can be expanded to 1Mta.

"The group wants the plant that produces local cement to be protected from imported products," CIMAF's CEO, Anas Sefroui, argued. CIMAF is present in 12 African countries with an installed capacity of more than 10Mta, according to its CEO.