Flour Mills Acquire Gas Plant, Set To Boost Cement Production
September 3rd, 2006 mishacko || mishacko@yahoo.co.uk
By Mishack Okpara
Flour Mills Nigeria has acquired a new N2.3 billion gas plant to boost its production capacity. The plant which came in seven sets will be commissioned in later this month. Speaking during the company’s pre-AGM press briefing in Lagos, the Managing Director, Chief Emmanuel Ukpabi said the company also spent $13m in the modernization of the company’s three mills to maintain current global trend in the industry, for better product and service value delivery.
During the same event, Mr Ukpabi predicted that Cement prices, still hovering at about N1,400 per 50-kilogramme bag, will come down soon. Cement prices had risen in recent weeks due to inability of the manufacturers to meet local demands. This has also affected the fortune of cement companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as the prices of active cement stocks like WAPCO, Ashaka, CCNN and BCC more than doubled in recent weeks. Though they were also affected by the activities of pension fund managers in the bullish run of the stock exchange.
Flour Mills, though listed under the Food/ Beverages & Tobacco subsector has invested massively in cement manufacturing and has plants in Calabar and Lagos. According to the MD, by the time the company achieves 2.5m metric tonnes of cement production annually, and with the contribution of other stakeholders in the industry and companies investing in cement production, supply will surely increase and the resultant competition among cement producing companies will make price to come down.
The company posted an annual turnover of about N86.5 billion for the year 2005, as against N66.8 billion that was recorded in the previous year.Its profit before taxation for the year under review stood at N6.3billion, and profit after tax and minority interest also rose from N1.5 Billion to N4.6 billion.
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