Nationbuilding in Papua New Guinea
Mayur Resources is an ASX-listed company focussed on the development of natural resources in Papua New Guinea (PNG). As the company prepares to begin construction of the country’s first integrated cement and lime project next year, Tim Crossley, executive director of Mayur Resources, explains how the plant will have first-mover advantage to capture the growing domestic market as well as significant export market potential.
Mayur Resources will build Papua New Guinea’s first integrated cement and lime project
ICR: Why is Papua New Guinea (PNG) a good location for a cement plant and how is consumption currently met in the country?
Tim Crossley (TC): PNG is a good location for three key reasons. Firstly, PNG, with a population of approximately 8m, has a rising economic trajectory and we expect, as other emerging countries have proven, that as the country’s GDP per capita growth increases, so will too the consumption of cement. PNG currently consumes ~40kg/ capita while other developing markets such as South Africa and Indonesia consume ~250kg/capita and for Malaysia, per capita cement consumption reaches 600kg. Mayur will have first-mover advantage to capture this considerable growing market opportunity.
In addition, PNG currently imports 100 per cent of its cement needs and significant quantities of quicklime, but Prime Minister James Marape has declared a strongly-focussed agenda for nation building, import displacement, vertical integration and downstream processing. This strongly supports our business case. “We will move from an introduced culture of dependency and complacency, where we rely on overseas aid and inward investment alone, to one where we become a vibrant economic powerhouse and are totally economically independent by expansion and diversification of our economic base,” Mr Marape told the Lowy Institute on his Australian visit in July 2019.
