DAMMAM, 18 December 2005 — Embarking on one of the largest cement projects in the world, Saudi Cement Company is investing around SR2.2 billion to step up production and meet steadily rising local and regional demand. The company’s board of directors has decided to expand the company’s production at its Hofuf plant by constructing two complete new lines, each with a capacity of 10,000 tons of clinker per day.
“This is one of the world’s largest cement projects,” said SCC Chairman & Managing Director Walid Juffali. “This project is vital for our country and it’ll effectively participate in the progress and development of the national economy.”
Established in 1955 as a public share holding company, SCC has been a major supplier throughout the Kingdom’s infrastructure-building phase — for airports, seaports, flyovers, roads, power stations, factories and public housing projects.
The company has also participated in various construction projects financed by public funds, such as the Real Estate Fund and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.
“With construction activity advancing in the Kingdom and the high demand for cement both locally and regionally, the SCC had to increase its production capacity and exploit its good reputation for marketing its production of various types of cements,” Juffali said.
Under the Hofuf expansion, two new production lines, with a total output capacity of 6.6 million tons of clinker annually, will be added to increase SCC’s total production by around 160 percent.
“Our plans for increasing production capacity are in parallel with maintaining our high quality products and protecting the environment through installing more effective equipment for environmental protection and control of dust emission. This is to comply with international standards and MEPA requirements,” Juffali said. “We’ve coordinated with MEPA in this regard.”
SCC operates two factories, one in Hofuf and another in Ain Dar, some 35 km apart and about 130 km from King Abdul Aziz Seaport in Dammam. The company presently has 10 cement kilns with a total clinker capacity of 13,825 tons daily (4.15 million tons annually), according to Juffali. However, actual production capacity in 2004 rose as high as 4.38 million tons.
“We presently produce ordinary Portland cement (low alkali), sulfate resisting cement, and oil well cement”, Juffali added. SCC has been marketing its products in the local and foreign markets since 1961. Its two plants serve the surrounding markets such as the Al-Ahsa area, Dhahran, Dammam and Alkhobar in the Eastern Province, Riyadh and its nearby markets in the Central Province.
SCC export operations are carried out through an export terminal recently built at King Abdul Aziz Seaport for loading bulk cement and clinker. Cement and clinker are transported from both factories to the terminal by railway. The loading capacity of the terminal — the world’s first facility of its kind — is about 800 tons per hour for cement and 700 tons per hour for clinker.
The company exports to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, particularly Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, and also to some European and African countries and the United States. It adopts a strategy of exporting excess production at competitive prices, after serving local demand.
