Zambia-based Scirocco Enterprises Limited has announced plans to partner with a Chinese firm and an international funder to construct a USD 200 million cement factory in the Makeni area of Lusaka with the capacity to produce 2,500 tons of cement daily.
According to the Scirocco Enterprise Managing Director, Moustafa Saadi, construction of the Amaka Cement Industries Limited will begin in September 2015 and is expected to be completed by 2017.
“As soon as the exploration work that needs to be carried out is finalized, environmental impact assessment will be carried out to comply with the prevailing laws,” he said, “We expect that the process can be concluded quickly without any undue delays.”
Mr. Saadi went on to indicate that the new factory will produce two different grades of cement for domestic and international and will employ approximately 200 people once production begins.
The cement industry is a developing sector in Zambia and, according to reports from the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE), the bulk of trading activity in 2014 could be accounted for by one of Zambia’s leading cement producers, Lafarge Cement, with a turnover of ZMK 553.75 million.
