Heidelberg Cement has announced that it has expanded its operation in Africa following signing of an agreement with George Forrest to buyout operations in the Democratic republic of Congo. The deal will see Heidelberg acquire a 55% stake in the Cimenterie de Lukala (CILU) cement plant, located close to the capital city of Kinshasa, and of 70 % in the two Interlacs plants, located in the eastern part of the country. The
Currently cement production from the plants amounts to more than 500,000tonnes per year but Heidelberg has said that this will be expanded to over 1.4million tonnes under its direction.
“With this partnership, we expand our African business and enter the very attractive
cement market of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a strong partner on our side,” explained Heidelberg CEO Dr Bernd Scheifele. “The CILU cement plant has significant limestone reserves and is ideally located to supply the growing cement market of the capital city of Kinshasa. We plan to further increase capacities over the coming years in order to take advantage of the considerably growing local demand for cement.”
