Yanbu Cement Co. (YCC) has reached an agreement with "KHD," a German company, to raise the additional capacity upgrade contracted in May of its new line by another 1,500 tons of clinker per day. This will raise the total additional production to 2,500 tons per day equivalent to one million tons of Portland Pozzolan Cement per annum. It is expected to be on stream by the end of the third quarter of 2005. The agreement follows its extensive technical and commercial discussions with KaneCem, a UK-based technical consultant, KHD, the supplier, and ACC India, the operator. They were meant to overcome the bottlenecks of raising the production capacity of the largest clinker production line in the Middle East from 7,000 tons to 9,500 tons per day and boost the company's total clinker production to exceed 4.2 million tons per annum. The SR243.4 million contract with KHD also includes procurement, erection and commissioning of a new cement mill with a designed capacity of 1.4 million tons per annum. As a result, the total YCC grinding capacity will cross six million tons per annum before the end of 2005.
