By Alex C
Africa’s Richest man Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has doubled the estimated volume of production for his anticipated Kenya cement factory, which is going to shake up the cement market in East Africa and lead to a further stagnation.
According to Dangote “The yearly production capacity of the anticipated Dangote cement factory in Kenya has been doubled from 1.5MTA to three million tonnes per annum (MTA)”
The Kenya’s plant was estimated to cost $400 million but the decision to increase the capacity could see the capital investment rise significantly. The company is also building cement plants in Tanzania, Zambia, and Ethiopia which shows there is going to be huge competition once they commence production.
Dangote’s three anticipated Cement plants(Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia), has a capacity of 8.5MTA in total placing it more than two times ahead of Uganda’s biggest cement maker Tororo and Kenya’s biggest cement maker Bamburi. These cement makers presently have a total of 3.15MTA capacity each.
The company stated that it is optimistic it will see a high demand of its products in neighbouring countries and Kenya.
“It is also in the process of upgrading its license by Kenyan government to a mining license after discovering a large source of limestone deposit,” the multinational added.
Dangote, who has been known to dominate Nigeria’s commodities Market with low-pricing strategies, is anticipated to have the largest cement production capacity in the East African region.
“The group intends to have about 60 million tonnes of production, import and grinding capacity in sub-Saharan Africa by 2016,” the firm said in a statement.