Two new projects for rejuvenating Iraqi cement industry

Information on two new projects in Iraq has been revealed by the Chinese and Iranian companies. Chinese cement equipment provider Sinoma has signed a contract with the Faruk Investment Group to build a cement clinker production line and the Islamic Republic News Agency has reported Iran's intention to build a 2Mt/yr plant.
Sinoma started its project keeping the domestic market in mind. The project is based at Sulaymaniyah, at one of Faruk Group's two plants that it runs with Lafarge near the northern Kurdish city. A 3rd plant is also run by the Lafarge in the Kerbala territory. In January 2013, the company arranged US$70m loan. The cement production capacity of Lafarge is around 6.5Mt/yr, 20% of Iraq's total installed capacity of 32.5Mt/yr. Faruk Group's decision to choose Sinoma marks a move away from the German firm ThyssenKruppPolysius, which was used for a previous project.
On the other hand, the Iranian project will benefit Iraq internationally, as assumed by the experts. The project is based in the southern Muthanna province and is being overseen by the Iranian Azar-Abadegan Khoy cement plant. According to the recent report, reveal in January 2013, clinker stocks rose in Iran due to a decline in cement demand in the country. Iraq is one of the countries, where Iran exported cement remarkably in last year.
The plant is situated near to the Saudi border, southern Iraq. Meanwhile, it is to be noted that Global Cement Weekly, Saudi cement producers have been asked to build reserves of cement to manage the shortage better.
Both projects will play prosperous role for Iraq and there are no doubts on this. It has been predicted that Iraq will hit a production capacity of 22Mt/yr by the end of 2014 with demand expected to reach 35Mt/yr. This will support the rebuilding process of Iraq, which requires huge number of cement bags.