Chinese firms sign $733m cement deal in Nigeria, Myanmar

Two Chinese firms, Sinoma and CITIC Heavy Industries, have agreed deals totalling $733m to produce cement in Nigeria and Myanmar, respectively, as they expand in emerging markets overseas.

Reuters reported that Sinoma International Engineering Company Limited, a unit of China National Materials Company Limited, signed a $536m contract with Nigeria’s Dangote Cement Plc, Sinoma and National Materials said in separate statements on Thursday.

Sinoma and Dangote, owned by Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote, who is Africa’s richest man, will be building two clinker cement production lines, each with a daily capacity of 6,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, CITIC Heavy Industries is collaborating in Myanmar with a unit of Siam Cement Group, Mawlamyine Cement Limited, on a cement production facility with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day, it said in a statement.

“The signing of the project and a smooth implementation will have a positive impact on the company’s future operations,” CITIC Heavy said.

“It will also further develop the company’s presence in the southeast Asian cement market, giving a boost to our financial results.”

The project, worth $197m, follows a similar contract that CITIC Heavy and Thailand’s Siam Cement signed in May to build a cement production line in Cambodia, CITIC said in the filing on the Shanghai stock exchange.

In November, China Machinery Engineering Corporation entered a $236m agreement with Kar Group for a 6,000 tonne-per-day cement plant project in Iraq.

The Thursday announcements came after the China and Hong Kong markets closed.

Sinoma’s shares ended 0.12 per cent lower at 8.35 yuan, while CITIC Heavy’s stock closed 0.29 per cent higher at 3.49 yuan, compared with the Shanghai composite index’s 0.06 per cent fall.

China National’s shares finished 0.57 per cent lower at HK$1.75, roughly in line with the Hang Seng Index’s 0.51 per cent fall.