Uzbekistan, Tashkent, May 17 / Trend D.Azizov /
A cement plant worth $47 million will be commissioned in the Surkhandarya region of Uzbekistan by the end of the year, Uzstroymateriali JSC told Trend on Friday.
According to the source, the project owner is foreign enterprise Surhantsementinvest, a subsidiary of Russia's Oil & Gas Companies established in 2008 to implement the project for the construction of a cement plant.
The plant's design capacity is 420,000 tons of cement per year made using the technology of shaft furnaces which may significantly reduce the size of production space and heat input.
In 2011, the company signed an investment agreement worth $46.7 million with Mack Management Service (registered in Sri Lanka) to build a plant. Construction began in September 2011. The project is financed through direct investment of the Russian company.
Up to 60 per cent of the cement plant's production will be exported and in particular, through increasing the volume of exports to Afghanistan.
The country currently has six cement plants with a total capacity of about seven million tons. The largest ones are Kyzylkumcement JSC (3.15 million tons), Akhangarancement JSC (1.74 million tons) and Kuvasaycement JSC (920,000 tons).
The share of the cement industry accounts for 72 per cent of total commodity output in the construction industry in Uzbekistan as well as 75 per cent of total exports of construction materials.
According to official statistics, production of cement in Uzbekistan in 2012 increased by 1.3 per cent to 6.78 million tons compared to 2011.