Displaying items by tag: Tororo

Uganda: Lands, Housing and Urban Development minister Judith Nabakooba said that the government and the Naita-A-Tepeth Communal Land Association have finalised a lease agreement to enable Tororo Cement to build Uganda’s first clinker plant in Katikekile, Moroto District. Nabakooba said that the project began in 2023, and will reduce clinker imports and conserve foreign exchange.

According to a social media post by the ministry, the agreement includes the sale of 202 hectares to Tororo Cement for the plant site, the lease of 3824 acres to the Uganda Investment Authority and the titling of institutional land for local public use.

Uganda: Tororo Cement has condemned a counterfeit cement racket after authorities seized over 700 bags of fake product in Osukuru, Tororo District. Five suspects were arrested following the discovery of two warehouses storing the material.

Senior manager of logistics and utilities David Omaido warned that such activities damage the company’s reputation, and urged consumers to buy only from authorised dealers.

He advised buyers to verify authenticity using Uganda Bureau of Standards stamps and by checking that packaging is in 50kg bags. The company is particularly concerned about the origin of the counterfeit packaging.

Kenya: Hasmukh Patel, the founder of Mombasa Cement, has died at the age of 58 years after a short illness. He was also the chair of Uganda-based Tororo Cement, according to the Standard newspaper. Patel set up Mombasa Cement in 2007. Notably, the Corporate Social Responsibility programmes of his companies had a budget of around US$12m/yr for spending on various philanthropic schemes.

Uganda: Authorities in Tororo district intercepted a counterfeit cement operation on 7 August 2024, seizing over 4t of cement. The joint operation by police, Uganda Revenue Authority, and the Resident District Commissioner’s office targeted a group involved in producing and selling counterfeit cement, which was packaged in branded bags of Simba Cement, Tororo Cement, and Hima Cement. The bust took place 5km from Tororo along the Tororo-Jinja highway. A truck carrying the counterfeit cement was impounded, and the driver was arrested.

Albert Amula, deputy resident district commissioner, highlighted the dangers of using substandard materials, linking them to building collapses, and called on contractors to only buy from licensed hardware stores. Cement manufacturers have called for stricter regulations to combat this illicit trade.

Uganda: President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has officially commissioned a new vertical roller mill at Tororo Cement’s plant in Tororo. The German-built mill cost US$25m and can produce 150t/hr of cement. The operator claims it to be the ‘most sophisticated’ in East and Central Africa. It is in the process of installing an additional 300t/hr mill, to bring its overall grinding capacity to 5Mt/yr. It is also planning the construction of a 5000t/yr integrated plant in Moroto, to eliminate the company’s need for imported clinker, which it claims will be launched within the next five years.

Speaking at the event, Museveni congratulated Tororo Cement’s chair Hasmukh Kanji Patel for the company’s ‘enormous contribution to Uganda’ and called for Ugandans to support foreign-owned companies, as they support national development, pay local taxes and contribute to gross domestic product. He said "I'm very glad that Mr Patel came here, that we privatised a government factory and now he has expanded it. This is why we had to go against people like Idi Amin who were ignorant. Ugandans should stop saying ‘Indian factory.’ This this is not an ‘Indian factory,’ it is a Ugandan factory regardless of who has built it.”

Uganda: The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives has backed down from allowing bulk imports of cement into the country following price stabilisation. The market faced soaring prices in April 2018, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. The ministry said that prices have returned to the level they were before the crisis. In April 2018 the government asked cement producers to resolve a local cement shortage. Local companies Hima Cement and Tororo Cement blamed the problem on reduced electricity supplies to their plants.

Uganda: Tororo Cement and Hima Cement have blamed falling production on reduced electricity supplies. Morgan Gagranihe, the executive director of Tororo Cement, said that production from the company’s plant at Tororo had fallen by half to 0.6Mt/yr from 1.2Mt/yr, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. However, local power company Umeme has rejected the claims. It suggested instead that the cement producers were prioritising cement production for large-scale customers.

Uganda: Three new cement plants or upgrades to existing plants opening in 2018 are expected to dwarf local demand. Hima Cement, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, plans to open a new 1Mt/yr grinding plant at Nyakesi, Tororo Cement is expanding its plant to 3Mt/yr and Kenya's National Cement is building a plant at Mbale, according to the Ugandan Independent newspaper. Following completion of the three projects local production capacity will rise to 6.8Mt/yr from 3.6Mt/yr. Local demand is 2.4Mt/yr.

Cement industry executives are expecting growth in the construction industry as the government starts infrastructure projects in the oil and gas sector. The cement producers also expect export markets to support local production capacity growth, particularly in South Sudan, western Kenya and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Uganda: Two Kenyan nationals have been killed after a crane collapsed at an expansion project at Tororo cement. Three other workers were also severely injured in the incident, according to the New Vision newspaper. All the workers were working on behalf of a Kenyan construction contractor that is building the upgrade at the site.

Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni has been heckled at a road commissioning ceremony by residents of Tororo alleging that Tororo Cement (TCL) is employing more Indian nationals than local citizens. The cement producer denied any wrongdoing, stating that 'barely' 5% of its staff are Asian, according to local media. The president has promised to look into the matter.

"Out of 1000 employes we have, only 50 are Indians. The rest are Ugandans," said TCL chief executive officer Mohan Gagrani.

TCL has also faced claims that its trucks are damaging Uganada's new road networks through overloading. It has denied any responsibility due to its use of contracted vehicles.