KARACHI – Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL) is gearing up to bring its second production facility on line before the end of April. Its new plant will be the single largest production line of clinker in Pakistan with a production capacity of 7,200 tonnes per day. The total cost of new plant is around Rs 20 billion. FCCL produces 3,700 tonnes per day of clinker in its current plant. To construct the new plant, the company has taken on heavy loans where Fauji Cement had a total long term financing of Rs 13.51 billion as of December 31, 2010 to be repaid by 2018. The company is considering exporting the new production mainly to Afghanistan. It posted profit after tax of Rs 251.13 million in first half of FY11 against Rs 193.62 million earned last year.
From July 2010 to February 2011, the sales of Pakistan’s cement in national and international markets stood at 19.70 million tonnes, down by 10.48 percent from last year. The addition to Fauji Cement’s capacity is expected to enhance the country’s total capacity by 2.68 million tonnes to 43.91 million tonnes. The capacity utilisation of the industry had been declined since 2004 when it hit a peak of 91.32 percent. In FY10, it dropped to 76.53 percent and to 71.66 percent in the first eight months of FY11.
FCCL establishing second plant
