The construction of a cement plant in the Keminsky district of the Chui region of Kyrgyzstan is on hold due to the close proximity of the new Datka-Kemin high voltage transmission line. Chinese investors will be able to restart the construction once the expertise is conducted and all the risks are properly assessed. This was announced by the director of the Republican Agency for the Promotion and Protection of Investments Adilbek uulu Shumkarbek.
“Now we are waiting for the interested parties to announce their position regarding this situation. We are also waiting for the international expertise and the expertise of local authorities to be carried out. After that, we will get an answer whether it is possible to implement the project and resume construction,” says Adilbek uulu Shumkarbek.
The construction of the Keminsky cement plant with a capacity of 1.2 million tpa began in the summer of 2014. The Chinese International Investment Group was planning to invest $70 million in the project. The plant — ‘ZETH-cement’ — was supposed to be located 500 meters from the Kemin substation near the Boom Gorge.
The substation is one of the two on the 410-km Datka-Kemin transmission line. The construction of the substations lasted from 2012 to 2018 with the participation of Chinese investors. Once the Datka-Kemin project was completed, the debt of Kyrgyzstan to Chinese partners, according to the Ministry of Finance, grew to $1.7 billion.
According to the National Statistical Committee, in 2019 in Kyrgyzstan cement prices began to fall. The republic’s demand for this type of building material is 1.6 million tons per year, while the design capacity of the factories in Kyrgyzstan is almost 3 million tons per year. The main importer of Kyrgyz cement is Uzbekistan.
