Uzbekistan: Beijing Triumph International Engineering, a subsidiary of China National Building Material’s (CNBM), has signed a US$160m deal with Eurocement’s subsidiary Akhangarancement to build a new 3Mt/yr cement plant. The contract was signed during Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's official visit to the Central Asian country, according to InterFax. The project will be completed by 2020. Eurocement chairman Filaret Galchev and Uzstroymaterialy chief executive officer (CEO) Botir Zaripov signed the agreement on project implementation during Medvedev's visit.
Akhangarancement operates a 2.2Mt/yr cement plant. It holds a 30% share of the Uzbek market. The plant also exports to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Eurocement purchased a 75.5% stake of Akhangarancement in August 2006 and bought the remaining share in 2013. It originally signed a US$128m contract with China CAMC Engineering, a division of Sinomach, in 2014 for construction of a plant that was supposed to open in 2016. However, construction was subsequently cancelled.