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By Emmanuel Adeleke
The management of Dangote cement has recorded an increase in the overall volume of cement sales by 6.2 percent to 20.8 metric tons in the third quarter of 2022.
Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Cement, Michel Puchercos, disclosed this while presenting the third quarter results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, over the weekend.
According to Pucheros, this was achieved despite the elevated inflation that is due to a very volatile global environment.
He explained that to mitigate the impact of the significant increase in energy and AGO costs, they are strengthening their efforts to ramp up the usage of alternative fuels.
“So far this year, we have co-processed 101,553 tonnes of waste representing a 77% increase over 9Mta 2021. We are on track to commission our alternative fuel feed system at Obajana lines I and V, and Ibese line II in November. In addition, we are ramping up our investment in Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), to reduce our AGO usage.
“The company recorded an increase in revenue of ₦1,177.3Bl billion, up 15.2% compared to last year, and Group EBITDA of ₦515.9 billion, up 0.2% with an EBITDA margin of 43.8%,” he said.
Dangote Cement is Africa’s leading cement producer with nearly 51.6Mta capacity across Africa. A fully integrated quarry-to-customer producer, it has a production capacity of 35.25Mta in its home market, Nigeria.
Obajana plant in Kogi State, Nigeria, is the largest in Africa with 16.25Mta capacity across five lines while the Ibese plant in Ogun State has four cement lines with a combined installed capacity of 12Mta.
The Gboko plant in Benue State has 4Mta while the Okpella plant in Edo State has 3Mta.
Through recent investments, Dangote cement has eliminated Nigeria’s dependence on imported cement and has transformed the nation into an exporter of cement serving neighbouring countries.
The company as a way to further increase the supply of cement across its operational base, has also commissioned its power plant at Okpella and is progressing well to deploy grinding plants in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.