Power Cement to enhance production capacity to 3.37 Million tons

Power Cement Limited (PCL) has announced increase in its production capacity up to 3.37 million tons annually with a fresh investment of Rs 25 billion. During the plant visit, Kashif Habib, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PCL informed newsmen that Power Cement Limited (PCL), an entity of Arif Habib Group, is its final stage of finalising expansion of its previous plant, located in Nooriabad Industrial Area, to enhance the production capacity ahead of increasing domestic demand.

“The new plant/expansion plan’s total cost has been estimated at Rs 25 billion (US$ 235 million) and has also attracted foreign debt financier’s interest,” he added.

He said the new project will use the latest technology from FLSmidth, the top international cement equipment supplier, and will cater for local and international standards.

He is expecting that the expansion plan is most likely to complete by earlier 2019.

He said presently, Power Cement plant with two production lines has a combined production capacity of 3,000 tons per day, ie, 900,000 tons annually. It caters for the southern market domestically and exports to South and East Africa, India, UAE and Afghanistan.

“The addition of plant in the South would allow the company to avail the allowable market share for Power Cement. “Thus, such expansion in the company would result in a higher IRR as compared to operating a new plant on a standalone basis in the North,” he added.

Kashif said the assumed growth in local demand of cement each year is without assuming the impact of CPEC, which will have incremental positive impact on overall industry growth.

“Some of the key CPEC projects that may have a positive impact on the demand of cement sector, however, presently the domestic demand is gradually growing of which several cement plants have initiated expansion plans,” he said and added that the government move to change the tax regime for developers has resulted in greater activity in housing sector. The local demand for cement in South zone is expected to grow at 15 percent annually for FY17 and FY18 and at 8 percent annually from FY19 onwards, he added.
The CEO of Power Cement said the company, in future can also supply excess capacity to northern region, in case of growing/unmet demand in the north. Furthermore, the PCL owing to its location would be able to supply to southern Punjab in a cost effective manner.

Meanwhile, Power Cement has achieved another milestone in its corporate mission of making best use of technological developments in a safe environment by installing state of the art efficient bag houses.

With a cost of Rs 500 million, replacing all the electric precipitators at its existing plant, PCL Wednesday also inaugurated the environmental friendly, state of the art efficient bag houses plant.

This upgradation has resulted in achieving much better control of dust emissions than the emission limit value of 300 mg/Nm3 specified by the Environmental Quality Standards applicable in Pakistan.

The plant was inaugurated by Naeem Ahmed Mughal, Director General, Environment Protection Agency, Government of Sindh. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Naeem urged the industries to properly implement the environment laws.

Nasim Beg, Chairman, PCL said Arif Habib Group believes in investing in areas which encourage development and augment economic activity by creating jobs while remaining conscious of our social responsibilities.