Italcementi, the Suez Cement company's Italian owner, will convert two new facilities in 2015, adding to two facilities converted in 2014, Italcementi Managing Director Bruno Carrè told Daily News Egypt. "We are investing some EGP 400m per year for four years," Carrè said. "We have done one and we converted two plants and we have another two plants to complete." The company is not disclosing any expectations about their investments in 2015, Carrė noted, although it expects the market to grow. In January 2015, Carrè said 2014 revenues will exceed EGP5.5bn, marking an EGP 1.0bn or 20% progression over the previous year, with 2015 revenues projected to continue growing by 10%-15%. Carrè said the expansion plans "are targeting renewal energy and our activities in the Gulf as in Egypt; our capacity is enough to support 40%-50% growth". He highlighted that 2015 will see the continuation of heavy investments to convert the energy mix and improve the company's environmental impact to the highest international standards. Italcementi will be one of the companies participating in the Economic Summit this month. The company spends approximately 0.2% on scientific research for innovative products, with approximately 6.5% revenues coming from newly produced cement. The company's latest product, white cement, includes photo-catalytic material, an active principle that reflects light and can destroy pollutants, and for which the Italcementi won the European patent. Another product produced by the company is the transparent cement i-light. The company is currently attempting to bring their latest cement technologies to Egypt but architects who are able to apply the technology are required, an Italcementi official told Daily News Egypt. The cement company held the arcVision prize event on 6 March. Egyptian architect Manar Moursi was short listed in the competition, however, the prize went to Swiss architect Angela Deuber.
