Meghna Cement Mills, a concern of Bashundhara Group, plans to increase its production capacity that is expected to boost the company's profitability by about 70 percent.
The company, which produces King brand cement, has signed a contract with FLSmidth of Denmark to import machinery for installing a vertical roller mill that will have a production capacity of 20 lakh tonnes of cement a year.
Meghna Cement, set up in 1992 in the industrial zone of Mongla Port, now produces around 12 lakh tonnes a year, according to its website.
The value of the contract is Tk 127 crore and the project implementation period is two years, the cement manufacturer said in a posting on the Dhaka Stock Exchange website, adding that it is taking loans from Infrastructure Development Company.
FLSmidth is a leading supplier of equipment and services to the global cement and minerals industries. It supplies everything from single machinery to complete cement plants and minerals processing facilities including services before, during and after the construction, according to its website.
Meghna Cement was listed on the stockmarket in 1995. Its net profit stood at Tk 10.23 crore with earnings-per share of Tk 4.55 at the end of June last year.
Each share of the company traded between Tk 111.5 and Tk 112.8 before closing at Tk 112.1 on the premier bourse Thursday, the last trading day of the week.
Sponsors hold a 49.81 percent stake in Meghna Cement, while retail investors the rest. With some 30 cement manufacturing companies at present, the country has an installed production capacity of 3.2 crore tonnes a year against the local demand for 2 crore tonnes. The industry growth rate is about 20 percent per year.