Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Azerbaijani private company Norm and engineering contractor China Triumph International Engineering Co. (CTIEC) signed an agreement in Baku on Tuesday on building the biggest cement plant in the Caucasus region.

The Gizildas Cement Plant, which will be constructed in the Garadagh district of Baku, will have production capacity of 5,000 tons of clinker per day and 2 million tons of cement per year.

The project is estimated at about $350 million. The cement works, which will employ 400 people, is due to be launched at the end of 2013.

Equipment for the plant will be purchased mostly from leading manufacturers based in Germany and other European countries.

5.5m tons of raw materials and finished products will be transported annually during the plant’s operations, which will open up new prospects in the transport sector.

Also, the enterprise will allow Azerbaijan to prevent the outflow of hard currency to other countries worth an estimated $150m per year.

Norm's General Director Ismail Erkovan, who co-signed the contract, said that over ten years of its operation, the plant will transfer taxes worth 200m manats ($250m) to Azerbaijan’s budget.

CTIEC Chairman Peng Shou, another signatory, said his company considers Gizildas Cement Plant as "a new opportunity for strengthening its cooperation with Azerbaijani partners and we will jointly build a cement plant of the highest class".

"CTIEC sincerely hopes for a strong support from the Azerbaijani government in the course of implementing the project and for close cooperation with construction companies. We will be boosting our relations in all areas of construction engineering."

The project will provide Azerbaijan with top-quality cement, with the lowest energy consumption possible.

Norm will be the first company in the region to offer oilwell cement meeting American Petroleum Institute (API) standards. Production of 100,000 tons of backfill cement per year will turn Azerbaijan into an exporter of cement to oil producing countries.

Norm was launched in May 2006 as a cement company selling goods in the Azerbaijani market. The company currently occupies a niche in the South Caucasus and Caspian regions’ cement markets.

CTIEC is one of the top 200 engineering consulting firms, the magazine ENR reports. The company is a leading enterprise in China in the production of glass, cement and other construction materials.

Murad Sadykhov, Norm’s head of business development, told the press that the operation of a new cement plant in Azerbaijan will bring down domestic prices for cement by 30 to 35 percent.

According to him, the country’s current demand for cement is 4 million tons per year, but the figure will reach 6-7 million tons by as early as 2015.