FC Brasov owner wants cement plant

FC Brasov football club owner Ioan Neculaie intends to invest in building a cement factory from the ground up. The investment would create a breach in this industry, currently ruled by three major international producers: Lafarge, Heidelberg and Holcim, each of which holding three factories in Romania.

The total investment is estimated by players in this industry at some $50-$110 million and would mean Ioan Neculaie’s comeback in the cement business, as well as the entry of a fourth player on an extremely competitive market ranging between 230-250 million euros a year.

“The talks are nothing more than a project. I thought about investing on my own with help from banks. The initial capacity of the plant could be 2,000-3,000 tonnes a day,” Ioan Neculaie told Ziarul Financiar. He believes the market has enough room to accommodate him.

“We can’t bear this any longer. I have even talked with the Government of Romania. We must find a solution to the price escalation induced by the three domestic producers. The cement price in Romania is twice higher than in Italy,” Neculaie says.

Neculaie owns the Prescon Brasov group, which posts 60-70 million euros in annual turnover and deals in various fields from limestone quarries and lime production to furniture, adhesive and paint production.

Neculaie would not provide further details on the location or the estimated value of the investment, arguing the project was in its early stages for the moment.

“This is a bold thing to do. Whoever invests in building a cement plant from scratch in Romania is bold, indeed. A modern productive line may require $50-$60 million to some $110 million in investments in case of a productive capacity of about one million tonnes a year. Furthermore, you need a limestone quarry, a clay quarry, as well as various pieces of equipment, which push the investment up to approximately $150 million. This is an investment made in two years,” CIROM (Romanian cement industry employers’ association) sources commented.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro