Chinese to open cement factory in Madagascar

China’s huge state-owned Changchun Construction Group announced plans Monday to construct a large cement factory in Madagascar where it aims to undercut the prices of current producers, officials said.   The plant is expected to have the capacity to produce 250,000t of cement per year and will employ more than 180 people when it opens outside the Malagasy capital of Antananarivo in about 10 months, they said.  

The US$10m plant, to be known as the Madagascar Long Cimenterie (MALOCI), aims "to produce cement less expensive than the current abnormally high price," said factory director Li Yao Ming.   Cement prices in Madagascar skyrocketed by nearly 100 per cent last year and currently there is only one cement factory operating on the Indian Ocean island, (owned by Holcim) officials said.