Tafico to call for tender to build cement plant

Fico-Tay Ninh Joint Stock Cement Company (Tafico) will invite bidders for an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) contract to build a cement plant at Tay Ninh province, said the project owner.

Nguyen Tran Nam, general director of Construction Material General Company No.1 (Fico), told a function yesterday in HCMC that legal procedures for business had been completed. Other auxiliary constructions such as site clearance, power and water supplies, and post and telecommunication facilities have been done as planned.

The plant should come into operation by the end of 2007, he told the function to announce the establishment of Fico. Construction Minister Nguyen Hong Quan said at the event that "we had to import clinker at high price to produce cement since the supply in Vietnam did not meet the local demand. So building the cement plant at Tay Ninh’s Sroc Con Trang limestone mine whose reserves are up to 78.7Mt needs to be done quickly to help ease the price of clinker."

Such a cement factory once in place will also increase the competition between local cement companies, thus benefiting consumers, said the minister. Tafico with an invested capital of nearly US$179m will be able to produce 4000tpd of clinker, equivalent to 1.5Mt of cement per year. The project includes a US$167m main plant in Tan Chau District with a yearly capacity of 1.26Mt of clinker and 900,000 tons of cement, and a US$12m cement grinding station at Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park in HCMC’s Nha Be District with a capacity of 600,000t of cement a year.

General director Nam revealed that the investment ratio of US$106 per ton of output was the lowest in all the similar cement projects One-fifth of the capital for the project comes from shareholders, while the Development Support Fund would lend 30 per cent. The remaining will be borrowed from overseas banks and financial institutions.