Bestway and Mustehkam Cement complete merger

Pakistan cement producers Bestway Cement and Mustehkam Cement have announced the completion of their merger into a single company.

Mustehkam Cement has been a subsidiary of Bestway Cement since in 2005 and the main of objective of this new merger is to operate the businesses under one management to achieve economies of scale. The merger would result in administrative and procurement savings and reduce marketing costs leading to enhanced profitability, the companies said when the move was first announced in April of this year.

Recently, Bestway embarked upon major upgrade and modernisation of Mustehkam. In the initial phase, one of the process lines at Mustehkam is being upgraded to 0.9Mta at an estimated cost of US$50m, taking total capacity of Mustehkam to above 1.2Mta of clinker. Planning is already in progress to upgrade and enhance the remaining production lines.

Bestway Cement operates a 1.228Mta cement plant in the under developed area of Hattar, Haripur in the North West Frontier Province and another 3.6Mta cement plant near Village Tatral of District Chakwal, Punjab Province.