Lucky Cement and the Industry

Economic & Industrial Publications

Publishing Date: Sunday, February 20 2005

For an under-developed Third World country like Pakistan which is in the process of development, cement is an essential commodity. The number of cement plants and their production volume gives an indication of the stage of development in a country. Pakistan so far ranks among the countries with one of the lowest per capita consumption of cement which at present is 70 kg. only. As a result of rapid expansion of industry, the output of cement in the country has jumped from 3,145 million tonnes in 1972-73 to 8,316 million tonnes in 1989-90, i.e., within a span of 17 years cement production has increased 2.6 times while the demand has outstripped the production capacity.

In the past cement production in the South was slightly in excess of its requirements while the position was just the opposite in North Zone regions. The surplus cement from the South, therefore, moves to scarcity-hit areas of the North and consequent transportation cost has to be borne by the consumer. The demand in the South is also going up and it will soon absorb the available surplus. The setting up of Lucky Cement plant in the North, where suitable raw material and infrastructure is available, will save the extra cost of transportation and will also help reduce the supply/demand deficit in the region.

In view of the rapid increasing demand for cement and abundant availability of suitable raw materials within the country, the sponsors of Lucky Cement Limited decided, in June 1993, to set up a 4,000 tonnes per day production cement plant. After carrying out the preliminaries, a place in the NWFP near village Pezu, Bannu Division, was found to be most suitable for the setting up of the cement plant taking into consideration the available deposits of good quality and abundant raw material (reserves good for over 300 years at least) in its vicinity and the existence of infrastructural facilities as well as ever-increasing market demand for cement in close by area.

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The plant is based on the modern dry-process technology which will lead to optimisation of output, conservation of energy and improvement of cement quality in the country. As the sponsors are also desirous of contributing towards technical development in the country, all efforts were made to ensure that proper transfer of technology takes place. A portion of the machinery was designed by foreigners and manufactured locally. The setting up of a large project like this in an underdeveloped area like Pezu, will contribute towards this development by creating an industrial environment which will generate employment for 10,000 persons directly and indirectly.

A definite demand for cement was established through extensive market studies. Also technical and financial viability of the cement project was established. It has already been established that this project will be implemented at a substantially lower cost than other comparable plants in Pakistan with an all-equity-based financing of both local and foreign components. The project has been managed and executed thoroughly by qualified and experienced professionals. The results are evident in the timely and well-engineered execution. Also suitably qualified engineers are engaged to supervise implementation of the project which has already gone into production. The company has started dispatching its cement to stockists and it has been well received by the market. Its strength exceeds the maximum strength specified by Pakistan standard.

In Planning and implementing of the plant due attention has been paid to environmental requirements. The dust emission of the plant is lower than the maximum allowed by the environmental regulations. The peak electric power requirement of about 30 MW will be obtained from in-house self-generation. The cement plant as well as power plant supplying power to the facility will run on furnace oil. This furnace oil is provided by PSO and as a safeguard against shortages and unforeseen delivery problems, a thirty-day store facility has been constructed at the plant site.

The manpower requirement for the plant is in the region of around 650 persons. It comprises of engineers, technicians, skilled and unskilled workers.