The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.5 million tonnes. In addition, the company is building a new cement grinding facility with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes in Dapaong, 600km to the north.
“The construction of the new clinker plant and the cement grinding facility is part of our strategy of focusing on expanding our clinker and cement capacities in growth markets,” said Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. In addition to Asia and Eastern Europe, these include, in particular, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. As West Africa possesses only relatively small limestone deposits, the clinker required in cement production often has to be imported at high cost. Our new clinker plant is of great strategic importance as it sources the limestone from its own deposits.”
The clinker will be processed to cement in HeidelbergCement’s grinding mills in Togo as well as in the neighbouring countries of Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. It will replace clinker that has previously been imported from overseas and so is designed to strengthen Heidelberg Cement’s competitiveness in Africa.
The investment project is expected to create about 1,300 jobs locally, of which more than 200 will be at the plants.
Commissioning of the two new plants is scheduled for 2015.
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