GHACEM has announced that by the end of 2014, the company is expected to increase its capacity from 3.4 million tonnes of cement to 4.4 million tonnes annually from both factories at Tema and Takoradi .

Presently, the company is producing 3.4 million tonnes of cement - 2.2 million tonnes at Tema and 1.2 million tonnes at Takoradi - and it is expected that by end of next year an additional one million tonnes will be added to this.

Dr. George Dawson Amoah, the Strategic and Corporate Affairs Manager of GHACEM announced this in Takoradi when the National Council of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) paid a familiarisation visit to the company’s plant.

The National Council of AGI is on a three-day retreat in the Western Region on the theme 'Creating partnership for local content development toward accelerated growth'.

Also, he disclosed that by April this year the company will be going into aggregate mining at Beposo in the Western Region.

“Payment of compensation has been made to farmers affected in the area, and it is expected that the aggregate mining will produce chippings for the construction of various projects across the country,” he said.

He said this is to complement what GHACEM is doing in the construction industry for the development of the individual, organisations and the country as a whole.

According to him, one of the major challenges facing the company is frequent power outages: “Last year, we lost 9,000 tonnes which is equivalent to 1,800 bags of cement and it affected our market.

“If the instability of power is frequent, it is going to affect the market and there will be price hikes - therefore, stakeholders in the energy sector must address this challenge since it is a setback to most manufacturers in the country,” he added.

Nana Owusu-Afari, President of the AGI, noted that Ghana is now in a construction boom - it is gratifying to know that GHACEM is trying to increase its capacity to 4.4 million tonnes.

“Local content development is important to the socio-economic development of the country -- it is good that GHACEM is developing the limestone deposits in the Eastern Region and Nawulley in the Western Region, and hope that you will start producing your own clinker,” he said.

He pointed out that GHACEEM has been at the forefront in the cement industry for over 50 years and now has competitors -- competition is good, it helps the individual or company to improve on service delivery.

“I will encourage power-generation companies to come on board to solve the power outages we have in the country, so that we can industrialise to offer employment to the youth,” he added.