Aliko Dangote: plant starts production in South Africa

Dangote Cement $600 million plant in South Africa has roared into production, Edwin Devakumar, the company’s CEO has said.
The plant is expected to produce 2.2 million tonnes a year.

In an interview with Reuters, Devakumar also said the company has started the process of commissioning its Senegal plant, while the Ethiopia plant will start the commissioning process next month.

Devakumar said a cement factory in Sierra Leone was scheduled to start this month but it has been put on hold due to ongoing Ebola crisis in the country, adding that the project would start when the crisis abates.

In the interview, the CEO revealed that Dangote Cement, Nigeria’s biggest listed company,will slow its capital spending next year to around $700 million.

Capital spending estimate for this year is $1.4 billion this year.

The company is also building a cement plant in Zambia and has applied for a licence to build a 75 MW coal fired electricty plant to power the cement plant. It has projects too in Cameroon, Kenya and Niger.

Dangote Cement, which is majority owned by billionaire tycoon Aliko Dangote, embarked on an expansion outside its home market to tap into infrastructure growth and has invested more than $5 billion in projects. I.

Dangote Cement this week lowered cement prices in Nigeria by about 14 percent to 1,150 naira, in order to boost volumes after it said sales in Africa’s biggest economy for nine months to September fell by 1 percent to 9.8 million tonnes and reported a 1.5 percent rise in pretax profit.

But the cut in cement prices has seen its share price shed 1.7 percent since Monday to hit a 14-month intraday low of 188.53 naira on Wednesday. The stock, which makes up a third of Nigeria’s market capitalisation is down 4.6 percent this year.