Cement plant in the bag
-could be operating by November
Stabroek News
April 9, 2004
The Guyana National Industrial Company Inc (GNIC) on Wednesday signed an agreement with Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) to establish a cement bagging plant which would be up and running by November.
The announcement, made in a GNIC press release, comes at a time of acute shortages of cement in Guyana amid a construction boom partly fuelled by public sector works. As a result of the cement shortages some retailers were selling a bag of cement for $1,500 to $1,800 while there were times when the main distributors were out of stock. This project is expected to improve the reliability and security of cement supply from TCL, the largest supplier of cement to Guyana.
A local geological firm, Ground Structures Limited, has a contract to perform soil survey/testing of the terminal site, while GNIC has the contract to construct the project's three, 2000-ton silos.
According to the agreement, bulk cement would be shipped from TCL in Trinidad and be bagged at GNIC's Lombard St wharf, using the most modern technology, all starting by November.
This project is expected to provide 18 direct jobs and during the construction phase at least 100 indirect positions.
Also upon commencement of operations, it is also envisaged that some 40 to 50 indirect jobs will be created with the planned additional distribution requirements, says the release.
TCL will be shipping cement in specialised airtight carriers and it will be extracted through a fully pneumatic system directly into storage silos. It is understood that the project already has the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency. GNIC said vertical linkages would also be created with the rest of the construction industry via the production of reinforced concrete components used in infrastructure.
Apart from the bagging facility guarding against further cement shortages, Guyana may also be able to gain some much needed foreign exchange as a result of the TCL terminal. This would be because the raw material inputs would be imported rather than the finished product. GNIC also suggests that the price in Guyana could be stabilised at competitive prices, especially as the transportation cost of bulk cement would be based on a long-term contract.
It is intended that the facility would create horizontal linkages in the transportation of exported containerised shipments of bagged cement by barge to a Linden station and then by road to Brazil.
Recently, the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce suspended the common external tariff on extra-regional imports of cement, opening the door for supplies from outside of the region. But it has yet to have any effect on the shortages in the country. Government officials have said the lack of cement has hindered major capital works like the completion of the New Amsterdam Hospital and set back the local construction industry.
TCL is a group of companies with facilities in three regional territories - Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica. Its product line includes cement, concrete and lime, which are mainly exported within the region and Latin America.