The board of BUA Cement Plc, on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with Sinoma CBMI of China to construct three new cement plants of three million tonnes each per annum in Nigeria’s Edo, Sokoto and Adamawa states.
Upon completion at the end of 2022, the projects, the statement continued, will raise the company’s total capacity to 20m metric tonnes.
At 9m tonnes combined capacity, the contract is the single largest ever awarded in the Nigerian Cement Industry for the construction of new cement plants at the same time and by a single company, in Nigeria.
The three new plants, the statement continued, are in addition to BUA Cement’s existing 6mmtpa plants in Edo State, 2mmtpaplantsin Sokoto State and another 3mmtpa BUA Cement plant in Sokoto – scheduled for commissioning in Q2 of next year.
Speaking at the ceremony held simultaneously at BUA headquarters in Lagos and the CBMI HQ in China, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman of BUA Cement said the decision to expand the capacities of its plants was to transform the nation’s manufacturing industry and increase cement production capacity.
“Nigeria and the surrounding region is still home to huge opportunities in construction, housing, infrastructure, and allied industries,” he explained.
Continuing, Rabiu noted that, “despite these opportunities, there is no doubt that there is still a huge deficit in supply whilst demand continues to increase in Nigeria. This situation has led to an increase in the retail prices of cement despite ex-factory prices remaining partially unchanged.
“To bridge this huge deficit gap in Nigeria and in the absence of new major investments in the industry, we have taken this decision to invest and build these new plants at a total project cost of US$1.05bn which will be completed by the end of 2022.”
Also commenting, Tong Laigou, Chairman of SINOMA CBMI applauded the long standing partnership between both parties, expressing the pleasure of SINOMA CBMI to work with BUA on the project, while helping the Nigerian group in its aspiration to become the best cement manufacturer in Africa.
He assured that CBMI would bring its expertise and wealth of experience, to complete the project on schedule.
BUA Cement Plc is Nigeria’s second largest cement company and the largest producer in its North-West, South-South and South-East regions, according to the statement.
Photo Caption: From left: Engr. Yusuf Binji, Managing Director/CEO, BUA Cement Plc; Abdul Samad Rabiu, Founder and Chairman, BUA Cement Plc; and Jacques Piekarski, Chief Financial Officer of the company; during the signing ceremony between BUA and SINOMA CBMI of China.
