HeidelbergCement to invest $180m in its Russian plant
HeidelbergCement is projected to invest U.S. $180m in the construction of another production line at its Russian Leningrad Region-based cement plant Cesla, HedelbergCement’s General Manager for Cesla and Northwest Russia Silvio Thiede said at a news conference Thursday.
The plant’s capacity is projected to increase to 2Mt of cement after the launch of the production line, which HedelbergCement hopes to build in two years, he said.
This year the plant is projected to produce 717,000 tonnes of cement, compared with 613,000 tonnes last year. The plant supplies its produce to the city of St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Region and controls about 22.5% of the local cement market, Thiede said.
Heidelberg recently completed geological exploration of the Borovnya deposit in the Leningrad Region and applied for a license to produce limestone at the deposit, Thiede said. HedelbergCement also hopes to boost the share of alternative sources of raw materials for its cement output, including metal production waste, slags and ashes abundant around the town of Slantsy, where the Cesla cement plant is located.
In addition to its Cesla cement plant, which was acquired in 2001, HeidelbergCement owns two more cement plants in Russia.
Last month HeidelbergCement acquired a majority stake in Russian concrete producer Gurovo Beton in the Tula Region and hopes to build a plant with a production capacity of 2 million tonnes of cement, subject to approval by Russian antitrust authorities. Hedelberg is expected to commission the plant in 2008 and targets the Moscow area with this plant’s produce. The plant is located some 130 kilometers south of Moscow.
In July HedelbergCement acquired a majority stake in another Russian cement maker, Volsk cement company, formerly known as Kommunar, which is located in the town of Volsk in the Saratov Region. The plant has an annual production capacity of 210,000 tonnes of cement. HeidelbergCement also hopes to build a cement plant with an annual production capacity of 2 million tonnes in the town by the end of 2008. Published under Cement News
