Kazakhstan: Yug Cement Stroi LLP has emerged as a new investor to help finish the previously mothballed 0.5Mt/yr Khantau cement plant in Zhambyl Region. The company, acting as a strategic partner, has borrowed US$29m for seven years from Bank RBK to finance the completion of the plant's construction. It is intended that the plant will reach full cement production capacity in the autumn of 2014.
The Khantau cement plant has a design capacity of 0.36Mt/yr of clinker and 0.5Mt/yr of Portland cement with grades M400 and M500. The Hengyuan International Engineering Group has supplied technology for the plant. Its raw materials are extracted from the Khantau limestone deposit, Khantau sand and gravel deposit and the Ulkensai clay deposit located near the plant.
In 2007, ACIG borrowed US$30m from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan for the construction of this cement plant. At the time the plant was 85% complete and mothballed due to the shortage of funds. In 2013, the project was transferred from the Development Bank to the Investment Fund of Kazakhstan.