Dangote Cement grants FLSmidth 5-year maintenance contract

LSmidth and its affiliated companies have signed a number of contracts with the Nigerian cement producer; Dangote Cement PLC  for operation and maintenance of certain production lines at their cement plants in Nigeria for a period of five years. The parties have agreed not to disclose the value of the contracts. FLSmidth has had a business history with Dangote Cement PLC which includes the supply of two of the four production lines at Dangote Cement PLC’s plant at Obajana, Kogi State, Nigeria.

The contracts, which together constitute the largest operation and maintenance contract awarded to FLSmidth up until now, is for the operation and maintenance of the plant from crusher to packaging, including full upgrade of the automation control systems. FLSmidth will start the operation and maintenance at one of the plants in about six month’s time while the operation and maintenance of the other lines will follow subsequently.

“These orders underline FLSmidth’s abilities and growing role as operator of cement plants. In choosing FLSmidth for the operation and maintenance of their cement plants the Dangote Group placed great emphasis on our focus on the use of local manpower and training, including our proven ability to train large numbers of staff through FLSmidth Institute – the current contracts include a workforce of around 1000 people,” Group Executive Vice President Bjarne Moltke Hansen comments.

Dangote Cement PLC is the largest cement producer in Nigeria with over sixty (60) percent market share and the fastest growing cement producer in Africa having a production capacity projected at about 50 million tonnes of cement per year in the coming years.

“After having decided to have an external partner operate and maintain our cement plants the main criteria has been to find a service provider who can provide ongoing operational reliability. And this is something we believe that FLSmidth can deliver,” President and CEO of the Dangote Group Alhaji Aliko Dangote says.

The contracts will be booked by the Customer Services division and contribute beneficially to FLSmidth’s earnings until 2018. The order intake will be recognised on a 12 month rolling basis throughout the contract period.

Article read in Businessday