Mozambique: A new cement plant in the southern province of Maputo is scheduled to start construction in June 2012. Budgeted at USD78m, the project is being developed by the Chinese company Africa Great Wall Cement Manufacturer, according to the country's provincial director of Trade and Industry, Fanieta Manjate.
The factory will be built in Chichuo, near Magude, covering an area of 80 hectares. The plant will have the capacity to produce up to
500,000t/yr when it starts operating at the end of 2012 or early 2013. Initially the construction work had been scheduled to start in June 2011.
Manjate stated that the company is currently mobilising equipment and building houses to accommodate the staff who will be involved in developing the project. The Environmental Impact Study has already been approved and families living in the area are being relocated to make way for the development of the project.
The Magude plant becomes the third cement factory set up by Chinese investors in Mozambique. The first in Salamanga, Maputo province, is currently under construction at a cost of USD72m with an expected production capacity of 800,000t/yr. The second in Boane, GS Cement, has an investment of USD100m and it will have the capacity to produce 550,000t/yr. Along with domestic upgrade projects the country's cement production could jump from the current level of 1.3Mt/yr to reach 4Mt/yr by 2013.
