Suez Cement, one of Egypt's biggest cement makers, is planning to pump this year new investments worth US$108 million. The investments are designed to finance the start of converting Suez Cement's Helwan and Tourah plants to use coal as an alternative source of energy for the production of cement. From his part, Omar Mehanna – Suez Cement's Chairman –referred to ongoing talks with the Egyptian Ministry of Environment to convert two plants to use coal, with a production capacity estimated at 6 million tonnes. Mehanna told Amwal Al Ghad on Sunday that Suez Cement had recently completed the conversion of Kattameya and Suez plants to operate by using coal. Suez Cement Group of Companies, a subsidiary of Italy-based Italcementi, is composed of five production facilities, with a clinker production capacity of approximately 12 million tons, are located in Kattameya, Suez, Helwan, Tourah, and El Minya. Meanwhile, Mehanna said in earlier statements to Amwal Al Ghad that the conversion process costs around US$10 million for each one million tonnes of cement in addition to further US$8 million to apply the global environmental standards for using coal.
