PPC mulls Botswana plant
The Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) Botswana is currently exploring plans of establishing a manufacturing industry in Botswana.
PPC Cement Botswana General Manager Werner De Beer said this at the launch of the competition ’Botswana’s number one builder’ at the Cresta lodge in Gaborone last week. According to De Beer, the company is exploring cement grade limestone in the country and if they are satisfied with the deposit of the limestone, they will establish a cement manufacturing plant locally. The company currently has eight manufacturing plants and three milling depots in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Botswana is the second largest consumer of cement in the region after South Africa and according to De Beer, they have always been committed to supplying cement to the ever-growing local construction industry. He said they made a commitment with the then Minister of Works and Transport Frank Ramsden that they would supply Botswana with cement and they will honour their commitment to serve the country. De Beer said the past few years have been difficult for most Southern African countries as the demand for cement increased sharply in South Africa due to the upcoming soccer world cup in that country, but Botswana never experienced any difficulties because of the commitment they made. " As demand grew sharply in South Africa, other importers were awarded quartets of the amount they wanted, but that was never the case with Botswana," he said.
With other construction projects coming up under the National Development plan 10 (NDP 10), De Beer said they are not worried that local demand will outplay the supply in the future. He said with most construction for the world cup in South Africa completed, demand is expected to slow down there and that will ease the worry in other cement importing countries in the region, including Botswana. He added that they can rely on their Zimbabwe and South African plants to supply enough cement to complement the regional need at any time.
Published under Cement News
