Heidelberg acquires 80 per cent stake in Gongyuan Cement

Heidelberg Cement Group has acquired 80 per cent of the stake of the Liaoning Gongyuan Cement Group in northeast China, according to an agreement signed recently, says Xinhua News Agency.

Gongyuan Cement now has three cement factories in Liaoning Province, and one grinding station in Inner Mongolia in north China, with an annual production capacity of 3Mt of cement.

After the acquisition, Heidelberg plans to launch a new production line and transformation of the present workshops to bring the production capacity of Gongyuan Cement to 5.60 million tons by the end of 2008.

Heidelberg set up a 50-50 joint venture with the Yuexiu Group in south China’s Guangdong Province in 1995, and two dry-process cement joint ventures each with production capacity of 5,000t in Shaanxi Province in northwest Chin and Hebei Province in north China in 2005.

If the acquisition is completed, Heidelberg will have factories in three provinces of China, boasting production and sales capacity of 10.40Mta.