Oman-based Suhar Cement will start operations at its new facility, featuring a cement-grinding unit with a capacity of around 240 tonnes per hour, later this year, to help increase the domestic cement production capacity and reduce the sultanate’s dependence on its imports, said a report.

The plant is being jointly developed by Sohar Cement (holding 70 per cent of the equity) and UAE-based Fujairah Cement Company (owning the balance 30 per cent of the equity), reported Oman Daily Observer.

Construction work on the plant is nearing completion at a site located within Phase 7 of Suhar Industrial Estate, one of several industrial parks administered by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) around the sultanate, it stated.

The original plans to bring the new cement plant into operation by the first quarter of this year have been somewhat hamstrung by two key factors: the absence of a paved road providing suitable access to the site of the plant; and the lack of power supply to the site, said the report.

Significantly, the new Suhar cement plant, along with a flurry of new cement projects planned in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Duqm, will go a long way in ramping up Oman’s domestic cement production cement by 2021, it added.