The President of Turkmenistan Requested the Construction of Three Cement Plants

The President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, ordered to speed up the construction of the three new cement plants. Turkmenistan needs new capacities to meet the needs of the domestic market and increase exports. The existing plants also need to increase their productivity, since their capacity is used by only 8 to 88%.

The head of the republic gave orders to Türkmensenagat agency [Turkmenprom] at a meeting to discuss the development of the country's industry.

The President said the country has enough natural resources, and the cement industry receives sufficient financial investments. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov also emphasized: “to date, no necessary measures have been taken to create small and medium enterprises processing local raw materials with the attraction of foreign investment.” The president wants the industry to proceed in that direction and pick up the pace to construct and launch more processing plants. According to the head of the republic the country has increased its own production of previously imported building materials and the list of exported materials is expanding in recent years. The newest Lebap plant (of the Turkish Polimeks group) built six years ago with a capacity of 1 million tpa.

Three cement plants are currently operating in Turkmenistan. In ten months of 2019, the production plan has been completed by 61.2%. The plant’s capacities in Lebap are used by 88%. The other plants, part of the state owned Turkmencement show lesser workload: Baharly plant — about 64%, the plant in Balkan region — just over 40%, and only 8.1% in Kelete.

On November 15, the head of Türkmensenagat Rovshen Ovezov was reprimanded for insufficient cement production leading to the shortage in the domestic market in the summer.

The Lebap plant became the main producer of exported cement this year. About 739,000 tons were produced at the enterprise in 10 months with 239,000 tons sent for export. In November, the plant’s executives expressed their willingness to bring the production capacities up to 1.5 million tpa. Over 2018 the plant produced 936,000 tons.

The main export partners of Turkmenistani plants are in neighboring Uzbekistan. The Uzbek authorities estimate the country's cement demand at 14 million tons.