Oman Cement sales down 1.62 per cent in 2007

Oman Cement sales down 1.62 per cent in 2007
11 March 2008


Oman Cement Co said sales had fallen 1.62 per cent in 2007 from the previous year due to unusually bad weather.  
 
Oman’s al-Watan newspaper quoted Chairman Qahtan bin Yaroub as saying that cement sales had fallen to 1.878Mt in 2007 and Oman Cement’s market share had fallen 1.33 percent.  
 
Oman Cement posted its third consecutive decline in profit in the fourth quarter at OMR18.017m (US$46.80m) compared to OMR20.584m the previous year.  
 
Bin Yaroub said that Oman Cement plans to finance through bank loans half of a US$162 million project to install a third production line with a capacity of 4000tpd.   The rest would be financed internally. The expansion would take 25 months to complete and the third line was expected to come online in the last quarter of 2009, al-Watan reported.  
 
Oman Cement is also working on a project to raise its grinding capacity by 3000tpd and expected to complete the modernisation and expansion of its filling station in the last quarter of this year, Bin Yaroub said.  
 
Oman Cement expects 2008 to be a strong year as it begins to benefit from its larger grinding capacity, he added. 
Published under Cement News