LVT signs cement plant deal in China

LV Technology Plc (LVT), an engineering services provider specialising in the cement business, has entered a joint venture with Fuyang Co of China to provide engineering services and distribute machinery for sale to cement manufacturers in China.LVT Tianjin Co was set up as an equal-stake joint venture with initial registered capital of US$120,000 or around 4.6 million baht. The company will be a supplier of cement manufacturing machinery in Tianjin, a city located 100km from Beijing, according to Hans Jorgen Nielsen, LVT’s president.

Business potential in China was high because the country’s 150-plus cement plants have operated for over five years straight without engineering maintenance. The company’s partner, Fuyang, as a supplier of cement manufacturing machinery, was in a position to offer great support for the joint-venture business in penetrating the vast Chinese market.

Mr Nielsen said Beijing’s policy to cool down economic growth would benefit the joint-venture business by forcing Chinese cement producers to cut production output, which would then offer them an opportunity to improve the efficiency of production units shut down due to decreased demand.

He said LVT currently had overseas engineering services contracts in South Korea, Dubai, Iran, Peru, India, and Sri Lanka worth over one billion baht, 200 million baht above target.

The company yesterday signed a contract with Thatta Cement, a cement producer in Pakistan, to improve efficiency and productivity at the Essa Cement plant, which it recently took over. The agreement, worth 710 million baht, would include the procurement and installation of new machinery to raise the plant’s production capacity to 4200 tonnes per day, up from 2000 tonnes.