Lafarge invests further in West China

Lafarge, plans to invest US$40m in southwestern China’s Chongqing Municipality, as part of its efforts to increase investment in the country’s underdeveloped west, which is rich in natural resources.

This investment will add 1Mt of capacity to its Chongqing Lafarge Cement Plant, which now has an annual capacity of 800,000t, according to company sources.

By 2005, when the second production line of the Chongqing plant is completed, Lafarge’s capacity in cement production in west China is expected to top 3 million tons. In 2002, Lafarge built up a cement plant in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, also in the southwest.

Currently, Lafarge has 13 factories in China’s mainland, with a total staff of 2700.

According to some Chinese experts, what has impressed Chinese is Lafarge’s pursuit in environmental protection while expanding its business. While building its Dujiangyan plant in Sichuan, Lafarge dug a two-km-long tunnel for the belt conveyer transporting stones through mountains and protect forests.