The US$300m Dangote cement grinding plant situated at Bouansa, Congo will start-up this month, Dangote Cement Plc has announced.
Dangote cement's CEO, Onne van der Weijde, said: "The Congo Cement plant is now 99 per cent complete and set to commence operations."
Dangote cement plant at Bouansa, Congo, expected to contribute at least 1.5Mta capacity, is a positive step steering the company towards the total yearly manufacturing capacity of about 32Mta across Africa. Dangote Cement Congo aims to become a major exporter of cement in the entire African continent.
Ganapathy Balasubramanian, plant Director for Dangote Cement Congo Operations explained that the Congo factory cost the company CFA133bn (US$300m). Expected to strengthen Congo’s economy, the factory sits on 80ha of land. When the plant commences operations, it will create about 1600 direct and indirect jobs. It will also increase local cement production in Congo, which will help to satisfy general construction demands, and save foreign currency expenditure.
According to Balasubramanian, the company will deploy automatic robot laboratory for quality testing. This, he said, will aid consistency and ensure cement produced by the plant will meet its obligations to customers.
Dangote Group also announced of building new plants in two Nigerian communities of Okpella, Edo State, and Itori, Ogun State respectively. The new plants, expected to be completed in three years will boost the company’s Nigerian output from 31.5Mta to about 41.5Mta.
Devakumar Edwin, Dangote Group executive director of projects and portfolio management, explained that the two new plants will support the company’s drive to reduce transportation cost components of its operations, lower overall cost of production, cause a reduction in the price of cement and create jobs for Nigerian youths.
Meanwhile, construction of a new 3Mta capacity cement grinding plant for Dangote Cement is ongoing in Côte d'Ivorie.
