(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Qatar's first carbonate calcium plant will start trial operation at the end of this month, the Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) said yesterday.
The QR22m plant located in Umm-Bab area is specialised in the production of calcium carbonate for use in water treatment operations and has been set specifically to meet the needs of the Qatar Water and Electricity Company (Kahramaa), according to Mohammed Ali Al Sulaiti, the General Manager of QNCC.
He told a news conference here yesterday at the company's Head Office that Kahramaa will be purchasing the calcium carbonate plant's production for a period of 25 years and that the carbonate calcium plant will also be supplying raw material required by the Ras Girtas Power plant in Ras Laffan Industrial City.
Al Sulaiti also said that QNCC was steadily growing and expanding, noting that a new cement mill with designed capacity of 130 tonne/hour will be installed to replace the two cement mills of Plant No.1 which will add value in terms of quantity and quality of cement production of all kinds to meet the market demand.
QNCC daily sales of cement stand at around 12,000 tonnes, 93 percent of which consist of clinker. However, the company said it has additional grinding capacity which can be used depending on market demand such as grinding imported clinker.
Meanwhile, the company's daily sales of washed sand stand at 12,250 tonnes which represents 30 percent of the company's designed production capacity of 40,000 tonnes of washed sand. The second plant had been stopped due to low demand, Al Sulaiti said.
Al Sulaiti also note that the price for bulk cement at QR250 per ton has remained unchanged since 2007 and washed sand at QR22 per tonne also has not changed for the last three decades.
He attributed the noticeable decline in sales to low demand in the local market, due to entry of new producers in the market namely the Gulf Cement Company, which has forced the company to stop its imports of cement and to reduce imports of clinker. Besides, the company also reduced the production of washed sand by stopping its new plant, this in addition to the global financial crisis that affected the market.
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