Korean-led group to build Cameroon cement plant

Cameroon's The Entrepreneur Newspaper blog reports:

By Tansa Musa

South Korean-led consortium has signed a deal to build a 37 billion CFA francs ($82.68 million) cement factory in Cameroon, the Industry Ministry said on Thursday, January 17, 2008. The AFKO Cement Production Company, based in the southwestern town of Limbe, will have an annual production capacity of 1 million tonnes of cement and aims to start production from April.

"Our company will produce several qualities of cement including that which can be used in marine construction and the building of bridges at very affordable prices," the company's chairman, Sang Bong Lee, said in the statement.

Industries, Mines and Technological Development Minister Badel Ndinga Ndanga said the company would alleviate Cameroon's acute cement shortage.

Cameroon currently has only one cement factory, controlled by France's Lafarge , and prices have risen in recent months from 4,600 CFA francs per bag to over 6,000-7,000 in some localities.

Shareholders in the new plant include South Korea's AFKO, U.S. land development firm Atwell-Hicks, and Indonesia's PT Petras, ministry officials said.// Reuters