00:00 Iraq's annual production of hundreds of projects and expansion of investment areas by more than 3%
00:07 increased demand for construction materials in their cement production by 25 million tonnes annually
00:13 which kept the private sector in need of new investments
00:17 to ensure 65% of demand after the country's production of more than 32 million tonnes annually.
00:23 The southern province of Iraq provides this activity with four factories
00:28 producing 21,000 tonnes annually while four other factories are preparing for production.
00:34 Cement production is a heavy industrial production.
00:38 The cost of the factories is more than 200 million dollars
00:43 and the factory needs an electric power station to start working more than 40 or 45 MW.
00:49 So the work is not easy, it exceeds 250 million dollars.
00:53 It needs a lot of companies and a strong head of capital.
00:58 This industry in Iraq cannot be carried out.
01:02 The factory needs to be built and built and the Iraqi companies need to be in charge
01:07 of the foreign companies that are involved in the cement industry
01:13 because the cement project is very large.
01:16 The increasing demand in the west and south of Iraq has pushed cement factories
01:21 to add new production lines between 2,000 and 3,000 tonnes annually
01:26 which benefits from government decisions to reduce fuel prices by 40%
01:31 and to prevent the import of imported cement.
01:34 We are involved in all the inspections.
01:37 For example, when we go to the project's headquarters and we bring the cement to him
01:41 we tell him to inspect it.
01:43 We bring him the inspections and tell him that we do the inspections inside the factory
01:47 and that he should do the inspections inside the factory.
01:51 We have a red line, we don't have a red line.
01:55 We don't have a price to raise.
01:59 The presence of millions of tonnes of lime stone as a primary material for the production of cement
02:03 in the remote areas of the Gulf of Muthanna attracted investment companies
02:07 to build their factories with Pakistani or Chinese companies
02:10 to benefit from the ease of extraction,
02:13 as well as the presence of a single market,
02:17 which includes marketing between 1,200 and 5,000 tonnes per factory.
02:20 This is a result of the increasing demand and the economic boom
02:24 that the country has witnessed in recent years and the movement of construction
02:28 has affected the increase in demand for cement.
02:31 It encouraged investors, in addition to the facilities that investors get in Muthanna
02:36 and the administrative facilities they get,
02:39 it encouraged them to work in Muthanna.
02:42 There are four other investment factories in the field of cement production
02:46 that are running and operating.
02:48 The administrative and legal facilities in the province
02:51 facilitate the entry of new investments that can be converted
02:54 to the capital of cement in Iraq and raise the annual production rates
02:58 to 20 million tonnes, which is equivalent to 50% of the design energy
03:02 of all factories in the country, which is 42 million tonnes annually.
03:06 There is a diversity between normal cement, resistant cement and new types
03:10 with limited uses.
03:12 The cement industry, which has exceeded its own self-sufficiency by more than 30%,
03:16 is now contributing to the stability of the markets in terms of quantity and price,
03:19 and it encourages its investment companies to export their products,
03:22 especially the latest ones, of high quality,
03:25 and use them for oil and cement production,
03:27 which brings Iraq back to the leadership of manufacturers in the region.
03:31 Raed Nabeel, CNBC Arabic, Muthanna province.
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