GHACEM Targets 2.2m Tonnes Cement

Cement

Ghana Cement Manufacturing (GHACEM) Limited has indicated plans to increase production capacity from the current level of 1.2 million tonnes to 2.2 million tonnes per annum by September 2012.

Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, answering questions regarding supply gap of cement in Parliament, said this would involve additional investment including the installation of a 150 tonne per hour mill from Christian Pfeiffer in Germany, a 7,500 metric tonne concrete silo and upgrading of packing capacity.

According to her, the investment is needed to ensure that GHACEM meets market demand for quality cement and defend its strong market position.

Four companies produce cement in Ghana but GHACEM
controls over 60 percent of the market while Diamond Cement, located at Aflao controls about 33 percent of the market.

Greenview International Company, which imports finished cement for bagging, has seven percent market share while  Savannah Diamond Cement Limited at Buipe is yet to begin operations.

The Trade Minister assured the House that the her outfit will continue to urge the power suppliers, Electricity Company of Ghana, GRIDCO and Volta River Authority (VRA) to deliver to meet the requirements of manufacturing companies in Ghana in order to promote smooth operation of the industry to meet demands of the consumers.

“I wish to explain that currently electricity supply from the ECG has improved at GHACEM Limited whereas the raw material supply at Diamond Cement Ghana Limited has also normalized due to the completion of the rehabilitation works at the Lome Harbour in Togo.”

Going forward, she added that GHACEM plans to ensure regular supply of cement to the market in order to normalize retail prices but according to her it will be subject to regular availability of power from ECG to promote uninterrupted production of cement at the Tema and Takoardi factories.

Explaining further, she stated that cement producers have not increased their ex-factory prices for accredited distributors.

The price per bag of 5 kilograms supplied to accredited distributors since August 2009 to date has been GH¢10.35 and GH¢9.43 for GHACEM and Diamond Cement Ghana Limited respectively.

The retail price of cement has been stable since January to April 2011, averaging GH¢13.45 per bag for GHACEM and GH¢12.45 for Diamond Cement.

The price however started rising in May 2011 when the average price for GHACEM cement increased to a peak of GH¢18.12 in June, 2011 while that of Diamond Cement increased to GH¢14.65.

Consistent power outage during the period adversely affected the production of cement.

By Charles Nixon Yeboah