Iraq: Attock Cement Pakistan opts for Chinese grinding equipment

A research report on Attock Cement Pakistan Ltd (ACPL) provides an update on the company's Basra grinding unit project in Iraq. According to the report, Saqr Al Keetan, in which APCL holds a 60 per cent interest, has established a US$9.75m letter of credit for the first phase of the cement grinding unit to be supplied by the Hefei Cement Research and Design Institute of China.

The first phase consist of installing a US$16m grinding unit with a capacity of 0.514Mta (out of the 0.9Mta total capacity), along-with a US$8m power unit that requires a total funding of US$24m. With an expected construction period of 12 months, the project is expected to come online by March 2018, says a report of Elixir Securities Pakistan.

If demand remains robust, the company will install a further 0.514Mta grinding unit with a total capex of US$16m. However, if demand 'normalises', the company will invest a further US$7m in a 0.3-0.36Mta cement roller mill.  This second phase has an expected construction period of 10 months with the project scheduled for completion by December 2018.