Lafarge Turns to Developing Countries in Middle East to Strengthen Cement Production

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--LaFarge S.A. (EPA:LG) (Paris, France), a world leader in building materials, is pursuing its internal growth strategy in the cement sector by adapting its capacity expansion program, undertaken for 2006-12 and revised in 2008, to current economic realities. Thus, 48 million tons of new cement capacity are set to be built in this period, principally in developing countries, which are seeing very high demand.

Lafarge entered the Iraqi market with two cement plants in 2008, in Tasluja and at Bazian, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Together, the two plants employ about 2,000 people and have a total capacity of 5 million tons per year. In mid-2010, Lafarge launched a $200 million renovation and expansion of an Iraqi manufacturing plant in Kerbala, to boost production output to 2 million tons annually.

In October, one of the mega-projects constructed by Lafarge, in partnership with Syria's MAS Economic Group, began production. The cement plant built in the Kharab Ishq village began production with a capacity of 3 million tons of cement per year, according to Global Arab Network. The project is valued $680 million and created about 1,000 jobs after construction began in 2007.

Syria has witnessed a substantial growth in its real estate sector for the past few years, and demand for construction materials is increasing. From only one cement plant in 1993, Syria currently boasts 12 cement factories that have an estimated annual capacity of 5.3 million tons of cement.

The Egyptian Cement Company (ECC) (Cairo) is a subsidiary of Lafarge, and its cement plant is the largest in the Middle East and is among the largest in the world. ECC was formed in 1996 and began cement production in December 1998. It was the first private-sector cement company established after the Egyptian government deregulated the industry and began to privatize the state-run cement companies.

View Project Report - 83600094 83600095 98100022 300015555

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.