Southern Province Cement Co.’s board of directors said in its report that the state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, refused to provide them with the fuel allocations needed to operate their Tihama cement plant and the second production line at Bisha plant.
Southern Cement, the kingdom’s second-largest cement producer, is currently working on optimizing energy efficiency and increasing fuel storage by building five new fuel tanks.
For Saudi cement companies limited fuel allocation from Aramco has long been a major concern in the implementation of planned capacity expansion.
Bisha’s second production line-- with a capacity of 1.5 million tons of clinker per year-- is 83 percent complete and the company expects the project to be delivered by June 30, 2016.
The third production line of Tihama’s plant started production last November with an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons of clinker.
Southern Cement production slightly dropped in 2015 to 7.17 million tons of clinker compared to 7.38 million tons in 2014.
Comments
{{DisplayName}}
{{ElapsedTime}}