Citadel Capital, a leading private equity firm in Middle East and Africa with $9.5 billion in investments under control, said a key unit of portfolio firm Asec Cement has completed a significant overhaul of Zahana Cement Company in Algeria.

A leading regional cement company, Asec Cement has management control and a 35 per cent equity stake at Zahana in partnership with the Government of Algeria.

Zahana, located in western Algeria 40 km from Wahran, had a production of  650,000 tons of cement in 2008 when Asec Cement took over management of the company.

Asec said it has begun work on a $30 million project to construct a new raw mill at Zahana that will be fully operational by 2014, raising Zahana’s production capacity to c.1.2 MPTA of clinker.

The company also expects full production from the Arab National Cement Company in Minya to begin by the first quarter of 2013 besides creating 400 direct jobs.

“Zahana Cement Company, our key Algerian subsidiary, has just concluded the largest overhaul in the plant’s long history,” remarked Asec Cement CEO Giorgio Bodo.

“This substantial intervention will lead to a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in the production of both clinker and cement. Moreover, the deployment of new bag filters as part of the upgrade has dramatically lessened the plant’s environmental footprint,” he stated.

Following the overhaul, Zahana’s production capacity is rated at c.900,000 tons of clinker per annum, said Bodo.

Meanwhile, Asec Cement confirmed that it is on track to start commissioning at the Arab National Cement Company (ANCC), its 1.9 MPTA clinker greenfield plant in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, in the final months of 2012.

Asec Cement is the largest shareholder in ANCC with a 45 per cent stake in the project and expects to bring the $335 million plant into production in the first quarter of 2013, said Bodo.

It is a portfolio company of Asec Holding, Citadel Capital’s platform company in the regional construction, engineering and cement industries. Asec Cement will control total production of 10 MTPA of cement by 2015.

ANCC’s Minya project will create 400 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs — including indirect jobs created during the course of construction, he  added.-TradeArabia News Service