The leading Pan-African cement manufacturer, Dangote, has maintained its stronghold in the Nigeria domestic cement market accounting for 65 percent of the Nigerian market volume, while other African plants’ volumes went up by 7.5 percent to 7.0 metric tonnes annually (mta).
The Cement company has in the past months expanded its operations across Africa with the coming on stream of the 1.5 mta integrated cement plant in Mfila, Republic of Congo, even as an acting chief executive officer had been appointed for the company.
According to the unaudited results for the nine months ending September 30, 2017, the plant which began operations last month has almost doubled the size of the cement sector in the country. The Congo plant has increased number of Dangote Cement plants across Africa to about 10.
Analysis of the results indicated that the company recorded strong volumes in Senegal, Ethiopia and Cameroon.
In the nine months under review, the 1.5 mta clinker grinding facility in Douala, Cameroon sold approximately 938 kiloton (kt) of cement, indicating an increase of 16.4 percent on the 806 kt sold during the same period in 2016.
The company attributes the increase in sales to a number of factors ranging from strong brand recognition, increased point of sales branding, improvements in sales and marketing strategies to higher visibility through trade shows.
Dangote Cement Ethiopia increased sales by 16.8 percent to nearly 1.7 mta in the first nine months of 2017 representing capacity utilization of approximately 88 percent.
The cement plant in Pout, Senegal sold 1.0 mta of cement in the period under review and it went up by 21.7 percent on the comparable period of 2016. This represents almost 89 percent capacity utilization at the factory.
Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Cement, Onne van der Weijde, speaking on the results said: “Our Pan-African operations are performing strongly with excellent sales growth in Cameroon, Ethiopia and Senegal.
“We are consolidating our success across Africa and have just commissioned our 1.5mta factory in Congo, the tenth country in which we have established operations.
“In our key operations in Nigeria we have significantly improved our fuel mix and this has helped increase margins across the Group. It is especially good for Nigeria because most of the coal we are using is mined in our own country.”
The Board of the cement company also announced changes in the leadership of the company with Weijde, stepping down as the company’s CEO at the end of 2017 having completed three years in this position.
He will return to his home country; The Netherlands. subsequently, he will be appointed as a non-Executive Director of Dangote Cement Plc, with effect from 1st January 2018.
The Board expressed appreciation to Weijde for his contribution during his period as CEO in the last three years, in which he managed an important growth phase in the company’s development.
Engineer Joseph Makoju, Honorary Adviser to the Chairman and former MD of West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCO)/Lafarge, will be acting MD/CEO of Dangote Cement Plc.
PR/Suzan O.
