South Africa cement manufacturer PPC is moving into the Algerian cement market.

The company is partnering with Algerian private investors and says that advanced plans are in place. The move will see it get a 49% stake in the Hodna Cement Company. PPC’s stake will let it assume management control of Hodna, allowing for the consolidation of the financial results of the project into the PPC group accounts.

“This project sees us entering yet another African country and gives us confidence that by 2017, 40% of PPC revenues will be earned outside of South Africa,” says CEO Ketso Gordhan. The company is already constructing cement plants in Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hodna Cement Company will construct a two million ton per annum cement plant in the Hodna area, roughly 300 kilometres east of Algiers, and close to the university and technology-focused town of Setif.

Gordhan says the Algerian cement market is very attractive because consumption exceeds local production by approximately three million tons of cement per annum. The Algerian government has also committed itself to large-scale capital spending programmes which will see the rollout of thousands of housing units which will further boost the country’s demand of cement.