The plant is Cambodia’s fifth cement plant and comes in response to the rapiddevelopment of the construction sector.
Owned by local conglomerate Thai Boon Roong Cement Co Ltd, it will provide 335 jobsfor local workers along with 35 positions for foreigners.
Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem said at the inauguration ceremony that the110 million USD plant is able to produce around 2,500 tonnes per day of twotypes of cement – “packing cement” and “plastering cement”.
Prime Minister Hun Sen presided over the inauguration ceremony, proclaimingthat the country will no longer be reliant on imported cement.
Unlike cement, steel cannot be produced locally and so the import of steel canbe seen as an indicator of growth within the construction sector.
According to the World Bank, steel imports were up 63.5 percent in the firstnine months of 2019 compared with the same period last year. From 2017 to 2018,imports of steel grew by just 27.7 percent.
The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction announced thatinvestments in construction had shot up to 3 billion USD by the end of thesecond quarter of this year, compared with 2.1 billion USD during the sameperiod in 2018./.