Azerbaijan output surpasses 2Mta mark

Cement production in Azerbaijan reached a high of 2.04Mt in 2013, up 3.8 per cent YoY.

The central Asian country has recently seen the entry of two new players. Akkord Corp opened a greenfield plant located near Dash Salakhly village in the district of Gazakh. Built by CBMI Construction and with engineering advice from SC Industry AS of Turkey, the new facility has a cement capacity of 1Mta and was commissioned in August 2013.

NORM LLC's 2Mta Qizildas Cement plant in the Garadagh distric has become the newest cement factory in the south Caucasus and Caspian region. Cement production began in October 2013 using imported clinker from Turkey. Full clinker production was scheduled for the end of last year.

Holcim Azerbaijan also operates the recently-modernised Garadagh cement works which has a capacity of 1.7Mta. LLC Nakhchivan Cement operates a 0.26Mta plant in the Nakhchivan republic, southwest Azerbaijan.

According to the State Customs Committee the volume of cement exports through the year rose by 15 per cent to US$152.6m.