Jul 13 2011
Today, HeidelbergCement officially opens its newly built cement plant TulaCement in the presence of numerous guests. The plant, which is located approximately 150 km south of Moscow in the city of Novogurovsky, in the Tula region, has a production capacity of 2 million tonnes of cement. Construction of the plant began in April 2009. The investment costs for the new plant, which employs around 400 people, amount to approximately EUR 300 million.
"We are very pleased that we are today able to inaugurate our state-of-the-art cement plant TulaCement, which is one of the largest in Russia," explains Dr. Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board. "In the future, the new plant will primarily supply the rapidly growing market in Greater Moscow with high-quality cement. We have thus reached another milestone in the expansion of our cement capacities in attractive growth regions and have increased the capacities in Russia to around 5 million tonnes per year."
The cement will be produced in a dry process in the highly automated plant, which is equipped with environmentally-friendly technology. The entire production site - including the quarries, where the raw material is extracted for cement production - spans over 100 hectares. To ensure optimum logistics for delivery and cement shipments, HeidelbergCement has constructed several kilometres of road and railway lines. Four modern apartment buildings have been erected for the employees.
"Russia is an attractive market for HeidelbergCement," emphasises Dr. Scheifele. "The demand for cement is rapidly increasing. It is anticipated that cement consumption will rise from 50 million tonnes in 2010 to around 70-90 million tonnes in the next ten years."
HeidelbergCement has been active in Russia since 2001. Amongst other activities, the Group operates a cement plant near St. Petersburg and is the majority shareholder of a building materials company in Bashkortostan, one of the richest republics in Russia, where dry mortar and gypsum are also manufactured in addition to cement. HeidelbergCement also produces aggregates in Voronezh and Novogurovsky (Tula region). Cement is imported to important growth regions via import terminals in Murmansk, Archangelsk, and Kaliningrad.