By Elie Mutangana, Kigali
A Hong Kong-based building materials manufacturer, China West Cement has launched a cement factory in Rwanda for fast-tracking cement supply and address building materials demands across the region.
Under its Africa’s subsidiary, West International Holdings, the “Anjia Cement factory” construction cost is worth to $100 millions and is expected to produce one million tonnes per year.
The factory comes as Rwanda and the entire East African region have been grappling with high demands of building materials, including cement.
The prices for available cement at market have been at hike, prompting high cost of construction .
For instance, in Rwanda a 50kg bag of cement now costs Rwf12,000 equivalent to $115, which push the consumers to dig deeper in their pockets to afford the price.
“It will complement the other two factories that we have in the country to meet the demands, address the trade balance and reduce our import bills”, Said Claire Kamanzi, CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB)
Not only delivering to Rwandan market, the recent-launched factory will also supply to other countries in the region such as Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) and Burundi.
Approximately, 79 percent of the production will be supplied to Rwandan market, while 21 percent will be exported to other countries.
“We will provide high quality and good price of products to contribute to social economic development in Rwanda and across the region ” said Zhang Jimin, the Chairman of Chine West Cement ltd.
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, who also attended the launch, acknowledged that a rapidly-growing and urbanizing population, especially in Africa is creating an increase in demand for housing and infrastructure.
“For manufacturers, this means more opportunities to invest in new markets and create jobs,” said Kagame.
China West Cement ltd ranks among the top 30 biggest company in the world, seventh in China and particularly, the leading biggest building materials provider in China.
With more than 9,000 professionals, it has 70 subsidiary across China, Taiwan, Central Asia and in Africa.
By 2022, it recorded the production capacity of 33 million tones collectively.
