Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) has succeeded in meeting 100 percent demand for all types of cement in the country and the company is looking for markets in the region to export its products, the company’s chairman said on Monday.
Talking to Qatar Tribune on the sidelines the company’s ordinary and extraordinary general assembly meeting, QNCC Chairman and Managing Director Salem bin Butti al Naimi said the company’s Plant 5 has become fully operational with the designed production capacity of more than 5,000 tonnes per day (TPD) cement.
“The company is supporting the massive construction boom in Qatar by meeting 100 percent market demand for all types of cement and washed sand successfully from the company’s own production maintaining the high-quality standards, and at a reasonable price for all products,” Naimi said.
For the first time in Qatar, he said, QNCC has started production of white cement.
“Today, we are in a position to export cement, clinker and white cement. Now we are looking for markets around us. We see some countries today that might need cement in future. Especially countries like Yemen and Iraq. Some countries in GCC also need clinker and cement. We are willing to export our products to them,” Naimi said.
With Plant 5 exceeding its production capacity, he said, the company’s production of clinker has reached 16,000 TPD and production of cement is expected to reach 21,000 TPD.
Providing an overview of the company’s achievements in 2018, he said, “The company’s production in both categories of ordinary portland cement (OPC) and sulphate resisting portland cement (SRC) reached 2.9 million tonnes during 2018.
“The production of washed sand increased to 7.8 million tonnes during the year. Calcium carbonate production during the year increased to 47,000 tonnes compared to 40,000 tonnes in the previous year.”
The total value of sales revenue was recorded at QR848 million for the year 2018, he said adding the shareholders’ equity increased to QR3.20 billion compared to QR3.14 billion at the end of the previous year and the company achieved a net profit amounting to QR348 million for the year 2018 against QR327 million for the previous year.
He said the company would diversify its production by adding new types of cement to meet the demand of local market and utilise the opportunity of exporting to external markets.
“Controlling production cost by contracting with service providers to provide the company with regular labour and technical staff, increasing the operations efficiency and accordingly reduce production cost considerably are some of the other targets that we plan to achieve in 2019,” he said.
Earlier, the shareholders approved the recommendation of the board of directors to distribute a cash dividend of QR5 per share.
Source:qatar-tribune.com
