New Saudi cement operation

A cement company with a capital of SAR1.2bn (US$320m) will start operations in al-Jouf, northern Saudi Arabia. The company will operate under the name Al-Jouf Cement. It will be a closed shareholding company and its capital has already been fully subscribed. Al-Jouf Cement will initially have a daily capacity of 5,000 tonnes, which will be later increased to 7500t. The project is expected to create 500 jobs.

The cement output of Saudi Arabia’s eight listed cement companies rose to 6.456Mt in the first quarter of 2005, from 6.169Mt a year ago.