$400m in cement investments

The nine cement factories in Romania privatised throughout 1995-1999 have attracted some $400 million in investments thus far, more than $120 million of which allocated for environment protection, a Ministry of Economy and Trade report shows. The document says the environment protection-related investments in the cement factories in Romania have allowed these facilities to operate in line with the national environment protection regulations. At the same time, the owners of the factories devised programmes to bring the production technology up to the European standards. The report also shows the domestic cement output amounted to 1.9 million tonnes in the first five months of the year, down 6% since the year-ago period. Total cement output in 2002 was of 6.2 million tonnes, close to the 2001 and 2000 levels, but much lower than the 1996 (6.9 million tonnes) and half the 1989 level (12.2 million tonnes). Cement exports reached 1.5 million tonnes last year. ZF