JEDDAH, 21 September 2006 — A new cement company will be launched soon with headquarters northeast of Taif, officials for the new enterprise announced yesterday.
The United Cement Company, with an initial capital of SR1.2 million ($320,000), has signed a SR862.5 million ($230 million) contract with a Chinese engineering company, Sinoma Engineering, for the infrastructure construction and machinery installation of the cement plant with a capacity to manufacture 5,000 tons daily. The company will also be able to provide employment for 500 workers.
According to the contract the Chinese engineering company will build power plants, residential facilities, roads inside the factory premises, administrative buildings and warehouses besides the mechanical installations, Safar Muhammad Zufayyer, director general of the United Cement, said following the signing ceremony recently.
The new company is expected to ease the shortage of cement currently experienced in the Kingdom, which is passing through a construction boom and huge property development schemes, he said. The present demands could not be met by mere expansion of the capacity of the existing companies. The cement shortage over the past two years has also led to steep rise in the cement prices despite imports from foreign markets.
Abdullah Al-Alitha Al-Harbi, chairman of the board of directors for Al-Harbi Holding signed the agreement while the Chinese company was represented by Li Zhejiang, chairman of the board of directors. Chinese consul in the Kingdom also attended the signing ceremony. He commended the high performance level of the Saudi industries of in general and contracting and construction companies in particular. He also lauded the growing mutual relations between Saudi Arabia and China particularly after Custodian of Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s visit to China early this year.
Safar Zufayyer said “the Chinese company will install the plant fulfilling the most advanced industrial standards followed in European countries in a period of not more than 25 months. The plant will be ready for production in 2008 with an annul production capacity of 1.56 million tons.”
The director general said the company’s products would be of such superior quality that it would not find any difficulty to compete in foreign markets. The company also intended to use direct marketing strategy instead of appointing distributing agencies.
The Chinese company’s director general emphasized his commitment to complete all the work as per schedule fulfilling the required specifications.
