| Doumit Saadé, Project Manager at Holcim Morocco's Settat Plant
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Morocco is one of the growth markets of
North Africa. In the country itself, the area
around Casablanca is seeing the strongest
growth in cement consumption. At the
moment, Holcim Morocco supplies around
one quarter of its production to that area.
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"The packing station, developed
by a Moroccan team, will
comprise three fully automated
sack feeding facilities and two
automatic truck-filling facilities.
The use of state-of-the-art technology
goes without saying."
It was therefore an obvious move to opt for
a planned capacity expansion there. The
precise choice of location depended on the
presence of existing infrastructure in the
form of rail and road links. Naturally, the raw
materials required for cement production
also had to be available. Settat meets this
requirement, with sufficient reserves for
more than 80 years.
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"The raw material is prepared
directly in the quarry. Clinker,
cement and dispatch facilities
form two further units. The
whole plant is tailor-made
for this site southeast of Casablanca."
Construction of the plant is now in full swing.
A cement loading terminal has already begun
operations and the facilities for preparing raw
materials will be available in February 2007.
When clinker production commences in mid-
2007, the plant, with a planned capacity of
1.7 million tonnes of cement, will be perfectly
placed to serve the market of Casablanca.
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"This cement plant will
greatly strengthen Holcim
Morocco’s market position
in Casablanca. Good transport
routes by ship and
rail and a well-developed
road network are major
advantages."
The plant is being constructed jointly by an international
crew. From Holcim Group Support
in Switzerland, the threads reach as far as
China, where Holcim has for the first time
engaged a main equipment supplier for the
construction of a plant. On site, project manager
Doumit Saadé, a Lebanese-born graduate
of a US university, is responsible for the construction
work.
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