Dangote Cement announces expansion to Cameroun, Sierra Leone, Zambia

Dangote Cement Plc, Nigeria's largest company and Africa's biggest producer of the building material, said it plans to begin operations in three countries this year as part of a longer-term expansion across the continent.

Dangote Cement plans 'to start operations in Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Zambia in 2014,' Chief Executive Officer Devakumar Edwin said this on an investor conference call from Lagos

'In Ethiopia, work is well underway, to build 2.5m mtpa plant at Mugher with production expected late in 2014. In Tanzania, we have begun work on a 3m mtpa plant at Mtwara and would be fully operational in 2015. In Zambia, work is underway on a 1.5m mtpa at Ndola with cement production expected in second half of 2014.

'We are reviewing plans for Kenya with a view to increasing the scale of our proposed factory from 1.5 to 3.0m tpa, because we are confident there will be sufficient demand both in Kenya and neighbouring countries', he said Dangote disclosed that plan were afoot to build import and grinding facilities along the coast of West Africa to receive and process raw materials supplied from Nigeria, Senegal, and elsewhere.

The company, controlled by billionaire Chairman Aliko Dangote, also plans to add 9 million tons to production in Nigeria by the end of this year as work begins on new lines at the Ibese and Obajana plants, Edwin said. It's also reviewing the scope of business in Kenya in light of the discovery of 'good' limestone deposits in the east African nation, he said.

With production capacity totaling 20.3 million tons across three Nigerian plants, the company has a strategy to expand into 13 other nations in Africa, bringing total capacity to more than 60 million tons by 2016.