Serbian cement maker Novi Popovac said on December 22, 2003 it planned investments of Euro 20m for 2004.  The funds will be used for modernisation of cement production facilities and for increase of the salaries of Novi Popovac employees. The average net monthly salary in Novi Popovac currently stands at 19,672 dinars (Euro 274.1).  Novi Popovac director general, Darko Krizan said the company would call in January 2004 a tender for the construction of an air-filtering system.  Novi Popovac cement output is expected to total 650,000 tonnes for 2003. The 2004 cement production is seen at the same level, Krizan said.  Novi Popovac meets 32 per cent of the cement consumption in Serbia and ranks second in terms of domestic sales after French-owned cement plant Lafarge-BFC.  Novi Popovac has an annual capacity of 1.1Mt of cement but the company works at reduced capacity due to low consumption in the domestic market. The three cement producers in Serbia have a total annual output of about three million tonnes of cement and annual cement consumption in the country stands at two million tonnes. Published under Cement News