The President of the Board of Southern Cement Co., Prince Khalid Bin Turki A'al Turki has signed an agreement with the President of Sinoma Co. of China. This is the final agreement for the construction and establishment of another plant for Southern Cement Co. to be built at Al Majardah. An initial agreement was signed in this regard in Sha'aban last.
Also present at the signing ceremony were the Deputy Minister of Industries of China, the ambassador of China to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Chinese Consul General.
The designed capacity of the new plant has been rated at 5000 tons daily. The agreement the Chinese company has signed envisages building of the plant complete in all respects including an electric power plant with 56 megawatt capacity, a water purification plant and all other required public utilities. The period for the implementation of the whole project has been fixed at 26 months, beginning from December 1, 2004.
From the point of view of design and technology, this new plant may be considered the most advanced cement production plant in the Kingdom. It will have double heating towers with 5 stages each. This is the second cement plant in the Kingdom to apply this technology.
The plant is to be located north of Al Majardah Town on the western coast of Saudi Arabia. This location has been chosen due to easy availability of the basic raw material required for the production of cement. The new plant will be at quite a considerable distance away from the existing cement plants, making it a highly economically feasible venture, as in the area around the western coast, more than 3000 tons of cement is consumed daily. This plant will supply the area's requirements at considerably lower cost compared to those cement factories that are located at a distance.
The Southern Cement Co. has benefited from its earlier experience. It located its second plant in Beesha, in mountainous region instead of expanding its existing production facility at Jizan, where it did not add another production line. In this way the company was able to supply cement to the area around Beesha at a considerably lower price because of the reduced transportation costs, over mountainous roads in Aseer Region.
With the addition of the new plant, the production capacity of the company will exceed 18,000 tons daily or equivalent to 5.5 million tons annually.
© Saudi Economic Survey 2004
