Dangote Cement Targets 50 Million Tons, Charges to Top of African Production League

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Dangote Cement (Lagos, Nigeria) is carrying out a massive expansion that, when completed, will make the company Africa's largest single cement supplier. Aliko Dangote, the CEO and chairman of the Dangote Group, plans to commission plants in a number of countries, increasing total production capacity to 50 million tons per annum.

The company's plant in Senegal is scheduled to begin production soon, along with the plant in South Africa, Sephaku Cement, which will begin production early in 2014. These two plants are the company's first outside Nigeria.

Devakumar Erwin, Dangote's CEO, said that work was well under way on the construction of the 2.5 million-ton-per-annum Mugher plant in Ethiopia, with production expected to begin in 2015. In Tanzania, work has begun on a 3 million-ton-per-annum gas-fired plant at Mtwara that is scheduled for production in October 2015. Production is expected to begin at the 1.5 million-ton-per-annum plant at Ndola, Zambia, in mid-2014. The 1.5 million-ton-per-annum grinding plant in Cameroon will be commissioned in the first half of 2014.

In Congo, Dangote will build an integrated 1.5 million-ton-per-annum plant, which will begin production in the second quarter of 2016. Both the 1.5 million-ton-per-annum plant in South Sudan and the 1.5 million-ton-per-annum integrated plant in Kenya will become operational in 2016.

On the West African coast, the group has finalized plans to build import facilities to receive and bag bulk cement produced in Nigeria and Senegal. Work has begun on import facilities in Sierra Leone, with operations expected to begin toward the end of 2013 or in early 2014.

With other Nigerian cement companies boosting production, Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as the largest cement producer in the Sub-Saharan region and the third-largest in the Middle East/Africa region.

Nigerian production will peak at just less than 50 million tons in 2020, according to Renaissance Capital (Lagos). Consumption growth remained supportive of cement investment in Nigeria. Growing from 14.8 million tons per annum in 2009 to 18.3 million tons per annum in 2012, the momentum was maintained going into 2013, despite the negative impact of flooding that occurred in late 2012.

Cement consumption will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% until 2020, Renaissance capital reports. The forecast implies per capita cement consumption in Nigeria growing from 108 kilograms (kg) to 190 kg by 2020, still below South Africa at 198 kg, Angola at 240 kg, and Senegal at 198 kg.

For related information, see April 19, 2013, article - Africa's Richest Man to Take on Challenge of $8 Billion Nigerian Refinery.

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