Syria is receiving the largest foreign capital injection in history. Syria's Ministry of Economy and Industry recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Vertex, an Iraqi investment group, to increase the daily output of clinker from 3300 tons to 5000 tons in the third production line of the plant within 13 months under the "Build-Operate-Transfer" (BOT) model. Within five years, a new production line of 6000 tons will be built. The investment of the whole project is about 300 million US dollars, which is regarded as the most important single investment in Syria's cement industry so far.
According to the memorandum, Vertex is not only responsible for equipment upgrading and financing, but also for personnel training, international quality certification and environmental protection and safety standards. Mahmoud Fadila, director of the Syrian General Administration of Cement and Building Materials (OMRAN), revealed that the formal contract will be finalized within a month, when Vertex will take over the third line first, and then start the construction of the fourth line. The two lines will be linked up and not interfere with each other.
It is worth noting that Hama Cement Plant has already become the focus of foreign capital competition. In August this year, a ³ & Co of the United Arab Emirates reached another agreement with the Ministry of Economy, which also includes the repair of production lines, the provision of strategic advisory services, and the training of more than 80 engineers and operators in automation and artificial intelligence. Fadhila stressed that the project reached with A ³ & & Co in the United Arab Emirates only focuses on the second-line and training modules directly controlled by the state, and goes hand in hand with the third-line and fourth-line expansion led by Vertex in Iraq. There is no overlap or conflict between the two projects.
From the third-line speed-up to the fourth-line new construction, from the expansion of single production capacity to the all-round upgrading of quality, environmental protection and talents, the upgrading and expansion of Hama Cement Plant not only indicates the restart of Syria's cement industry, but also is regarded by the government as a vane to leverage the self-sufficiency of reconstruction materials and attract wider regional capital reflux.