Surging demand for cement in the East Africa region is encouraging manufacturers to pump million of dollars into expanding capacity.

Cement manufacturers in Kenya and Tanzania are currently witnessing a rise in consumption. Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows cement consumption in Kenya surged 12 per cent in the nine months to September, hitting 254,000 tonnes from 226,000 tonnes last year.

Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi have lower consumption of cement but this is likely to increase as infrastructure upgrades gather steam in the coming months.

The EAC region is on a massive infrastructure upgrade, which should push up demand for cement in the coming months, as nations push through investments in roads, ports and bridges, railway construction and energy generation projects.

Global cement manufacturer Lafarge predicts that demand for cement in the region will increase by nine per cent annually over the next decade.

Moremi Marwa, the chief executive officer of the Tanzania Security Ltd said total cement capacity, which also includes imported clinker, is set to reach 11.6 million tonnes per annum across East Africa by the end of 2011, from eight million tonnes per annum at the beginning of this year.

“Current production fulfills the existing demand. However, there is a lot of infrastructure, commercial and residential constructions going on across the region which will increase demand” said Mr Marwa.

The director of economic statistics at the Tanzanian National Bureau of Statistics, Morrice Oyuke, said demand in the region will in the next year be driven by government projects to revamp the agriculture, infrastructure and industrial sectors.

“We expect the demand in Tanzania to grow at 18 per cent if the retail business, infrastructure development and mining investments are sustained,” said Mr Oyuke.

In Tanzania, Twiga and Simba cement have completed their expansion plans adding about 1.4 million tonnes to the industry. Lafarge’s Mbeya Cement is planning to roll out a new investment which will increase capacity by over 250,000 tonnes annually.

India-based Banco Products is investing $65 million in its cement plant in Tanzania, which targets the East African market.

The investment follows Banco’s acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in Tanzania’s Lake Cement Company Ltd. The plant is expected to produce about 500,000 tonnes of cement a year.

Other regional investments are planned by Cemtech in Kenya and Uganda, to increase capacity by 1.2 million tonnes.

Kenya’s National Cement, a subsidiary of Devki Group, became the latest player announcing plans to increase production by more than six times its current capacity with a $144 million investment.

The planned investment will help National Cement, which sells the Simba brand, expand capacity to 2.5 million metric tonnes from the current 400,000 metric tonnes, ranking it at par with Athi River Mining as the second largest players in the region in terms of capacity.

Bamburi’s present capacity stands at three million metric tonnes per annum with Kenya’s production at 2.2 million tonnes.

In Uganda Hima Cement is set to complete a new plant in Kasese that will increase its production capacity from 0.35 m tonnes to 0.5m tonnes, while Tororo Cement recently announced that it will invest $50 million to double its capacity from 1 million tonnes to 2.2 million tonnes.