Dubai-based group to set up cement plant

Dubai-based group to set up cement plant
26 June 2008


A Dubai-based business group will set up a cement manufacturing plant named Galadari Cement (Gulf) Limited, near Karachi, its CEO Badaruddin Fakhari as reported by Daily Times on Wednesday.

He said that the project was planned seven to eight years ago but work on it was halted due to some reasons. Now the project has been started again and the construction of plant would start by next month and would complete by the end of November 2009, he added.

The CEO said that the business group would initially invest Rs 3 billion and is likely to invest another Rs 17 million after its completion. He said that company would also sell shares in the market in early 2009.

Badaruddin Fakhri further said that besides providing employment the cement plant would also increase government revenue by up to Rs 1 billion. He said that French machinery would be installed for cement production, which would produce 3300 metric tonnes on daily basis. The company would also export cement, he added.

Bilal Hameed, an analyst of cement sector, said that the overall production of the company would be 990,000 tonnes annually that would increase the cement supply locally as well as at international level. The high prices in the local market are also expected to come down after this plant is set up, he added.

Muhammad Shahid Farooqui of Karachi Cement Dealers Association said that as cement production is already low in Pakistan, the new company’s 3300 tonnes production on daily basis would not be able to help meet the country’s requirement. If the company initially does not export the cement, it might boost supply in the country.

Although Pakistan produces around 90,000 tonnes cement per day, but because local manufacturers export cement in large volumes and do not sell their product in local market, a shortage of cement in the local market persists, he said.

“The government does not have any control on local manufacturers, as they have created a fake cement shortage in the local market, otherwise we have a surplus of cement production,” he added.


Published under Cement News