Cameroon welcomes new Cement brand Cimaco ⁰

The Cameroonian cement market is set to welcome a new brand, Cimaco, starting in June 2025. This news was announced in an advertisement by Chinese-owned Sinafcam Sarl, which produces the cement in Edéa, located in Cameroon’s Littoral region. For its market debut, Sinafcam is introducing three product grades: 32.5, 42.5, and 52.5. The plant currently has an annual production capacity of one million tons.

Sinafcam’s entry brings the total number of cement producers in Cameroon to seven. This expansion comes a decade after Cimenteries du Cameroun (Cimencam), a subsidiary of Lafarge Holcim Maroc Afrique (LHMA), ended its 48-year monopoly. Cimencam, with a production capacity of 2.3 million tons, faced its first significant challenge with the arrival of Dangote Cement Cameroon in 2015, paving the way for several new entrants since then.

Current producers include Nigeria’s Dangote Cement (1.5 million tons); Moroccan firm Cimaf, which recently tripled its original output of 500,000 tons through a plant expansion; Medcem Cameroon (600,000 tons), a subsidiary of Turkey’s Eren Holding; Mira Company, which increased its capacity from 1 million to 1.5 million tons with a new production line commissioned in June 2022; and Portuguese group Cimpor (1 million tons).

Additionally, the Ministry of Industry anticipates two more Chinese cement plants in Edéa: Central Africa Cement (CAC) is projected to produce 1.5 million tons annually, while Yousheng Cement aims for 1.8 million tons.

Despite a decade-long surge in cement production facilities, the retail price for a 50kg bag of cement remains high, hovering between 5,100 and 5,300 CFA francs in major cities like Douala and Yaoundé. Both producers and government officials attribute these high prices to the elevated cost of importing clinker, the primary ingredient in cement production.

However, with prices showing little movement despite increased supply, Trade Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana has repeatedly voiced suspicions of “illegal price-fixing agreements” among producers.

Source: Business in Cameroon