Pakistan: Cherat Cement Company Limited will invest US$197m to install a new production plant at its existing site in Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. The new plant will have a 1.3Mt/yr production capacity and will be commissioned in 30 months, according to Abid A Vazir, executive director of Cherat Cement.
The term-loan for the project has been arranged and Cherat Cement has established a letter of credit for the foreign component of the loan. The plant will be acquired from China's Tianjin Cement Industry Design and Research Institute Company Limited.
Cherat Cement expects domestic cement demand to grow exponentially as the present government has planned spending on major infrastructure projects, with a special focus on constructing highways and hydropower and housing projects. Cherat Cement is also expecting huge spending by the private sector on construction-related activities, fuelled by inflows of remittances from expatriate Pakistanis.