RIYADH: Southern Province Cement Co., Saudi Arabia's biggest cement firm by market value, said Saturday its expansion project to add a second 5,000 tons per day cement clinker line at its third plant in Tihama will be completed by the end of 2011. The new line will raise the total daily production at the Tihama plant to 10,000 tons to meet the expected growing demand from Jizan province, bordering Yemen, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Saturday, citing the firm's chief executive Safar Bin Mohammed Zafir. It will also increase the total daily output of Southern Province Cement to 23,000 tons from 18,000 tons, Zafir added. It signed a SR552 million ($147 million) contract with China's Sinoma International Engineering Co. to add the second 5,000 tons per day cement clinker line at its third plant. The company's shares last traded 2 percent higher at SR64 Saturday in a broadly positive market. Separately, the UAE can pump as much as 31 million tons of cement every year to emerge as the third largest producer of the building material in the Arab region.
