South Africa: PPC is planning a ‘mega-plant’ in the Western Cape Province. Johan Claassen, PPC’s interim chief executive, stated that it was looking to replace its Reibeeck plant with a ‘semi-brownfield’ facility that used around 25% of the current plant’s equipment. The company has long planned to expand its Western Cape capacity but domestic demand has not yet been high enough to justify the investment. There has been overcapacity in the market as well as imports from other regions, both of which have depressed cement prices.
Claassen said that the plant would cost around US$200/t of installed capacity, without mentioning the intended capacity. He said that financing was already in place. He added that PPC had been able to increase its selling prices by 2% in the six months to 30 September 2017 and that, even with slow growth, South Africa would need the additional capacity supplied by the new plant by 2020.
Claassen said that a formal announcement would be likely in early 2018.