The joint venture will take control of Seqcementi, which is the dominant cement producer in Georgia and the only clinker producer in that country. Saqcementi owns Kaspicement near Kaspi, which has a clinker capacity of 795,000t and a cement capacity of 975,000t and Rustavicement at Rustavi, which has a clinker capacity of 570,000t and a grinding capacity of 700,000t. Both plants use the wet process and have a combined market share in the region of 60%. In addition to supplying the domestic market, Saqcementi exports cement to Azerbaijan and to Armenia and claims close to 20% of the Azeri market.
HeidelbergCement has also announced plans to build a 2.0m tonnes per annum new cement works in western Kazakhstan to supply growing demands in the Caspian Sea area, which is being boosted by oil and gas exploration and development activity, but are far removed from the existing Kazakh cement plants.
