Lafarge said on Thursday it plans to invest Euro 30m to 40m in the next four years in the development of its Moldovan unit, cement producer Ciment Rezina. Lafarge director for Moldova Hubert Pillet told a news conference that the investments would be used mainly to improve quality of products and to launch production of new types of cement. He added that Lafarge aims to make the Moldovan unit a leader on the domestic market. The owner also targets exports to Romania and Ukraine.

Main rivals of Ciment Rezina on the Moldovan market are Ribnita cement plant, situated in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transndiestria, and Ukrainian producers, who export cement to Moldova.

Ciment Rezina more than doubled its net profit last year to 50.9 million lei ($3.9m). Net sales of the company rose by 53.5 per cent to 355.8 million lei in 2005.

Ciment Rezina director general Leonid Nicorici told the same news conference that the company produced 628,000t of cement and 565,000t of clinker last year. He gave no comparative figures. Lafarge bought 51 per cent in Ciment Rezina in 1999 for just US$200,000 and pledged to repay the company’s debt of 38 million lei and to invest US$12 million in the modernisation of the plant. Lafarge owns 71.4% in the company now. It has invested five million euro in the Moldovan unit so far.
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