Work on R2,5bn Namibian cement plant to start next year
Thématique :
namibie
Construction on a mega cement plant German group Schwenk plans to build near Tsumeb, in northern Nambia, is to start in January next year, with completion scheduled for 2010.
The price tag of the project, which was initially announced last year, has doubled to R2,5-billion, says Schwenk CEO Gerhard Hirth, adding that the turnkey contract for the Ohorongo Cement plant has been awarded to German company Polysius.
The 700 000-t/y plant, to be Namibia’s first cement producer, will supply the Namibian, Angolan and Botswana markets, in addition to other noncement-producing countries in Southern Africa.
The plant, situated in the copper- and limestone-rich Otavi district, boasts cement raw materials on site and, at the envisaged production rates, will be operation for more than a century.
“There is a high-quality deposit of raw materials,” says Hirth, who also chairs Ohorongo Cement.
Meanwhile, Schwenk has ditched a group of local investors headed by former Ongopolo Copper Mines MD Andre Neethling and business mogul Ranga Haikali.
Neethling, who claims to have persuaded the Germans to invest in the project, and Haikali had reportedly been promised a 40% equity stake.
“We have taken over the shares of the Namibian investors – that 40% will be offered to Namibian insti-tutions – our intention is to have a sound structure,” says Hirth.
He adds that part of the capital to fund the project will come from the European Investment Bank and an unnamed German financial institution.
Commenting on the unravel-ling of the deal with Schenk, Haikali says: “Schwenk has exercised its options to get Namibians out of the cement project and there is nothing we can do about it.”
Neethling says that, although he has been kicked out of the project, he is happy that it is going ahead.
He explains that he and his Namibian partners had come into the project as individual investors but the huge capital requirements now call for institutional investors.
