Tanga Cement MD Appointed East Africa Cement Producers Association Tanzania Chair

The East Africa Cement Producers Association (EACPA) has appointed Reinhardt Swart the Managing Director of Tanga Cement Company the chair of its Tanzanian chapter, with effect from 1 August 2015 for the next three years.

The East Africa Cement Producers Association (EACPA) brings together cement manufacturing companies from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.  EACPA TZ is a chapter of the East Africa Association which includes Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania. EACPA Tanzania chapter includes all the five major players in Tanzania; Mbeya Cement, Tanga Cement, Twiga Cement, ARM Cement, and Lake Cement.

The objective of the association is to promote the growth of the industry in the region by instituting necessary legislation and looking for markets beyond the area. It also liaises with other similar bodies and government departments as well as the Chamber of Commerce on relevant issues in the region. 

Commenting on the cement industry after his appointment, Reinhardt Swart said: ‘‘’The cement industry is a major contributor to the Tanzanian economy contributing over 100 billion Tanzanian shillings to the economy every year. The industry sources most of its inputs in the local market and has created direct and indirect employment to thousands of Tanzanian people across the country. There is still potential to grow this industry, but this can only happen if government puts in place legislation that protects investors from unfair competition.’’

 Tanzania cement producers struggle with high input costs – in particular due to unreliable power and poor transportation infrastructure,and of late, increased pressure from the department of minerals where their actions prohibit the practicing of fair trade when sourcing minerals required for the manufucturing of cement – that makes it hard to compete with cement produced abroad

Reinhardt also noted that the cement industry had the potential to grow and create thousands more jobs if it received the necessary support from government.

‘’The regional cement industry has the capacity and required quality to supply all on-going and new major infrastructure projects,’’ he said.

He was referring on the need to ensure all cement for the construction of major infrastructure projects such as the expansion of the Dar Port and the construction of Bagamoyo Port use locally produced cement.

In Kenya, the government has supported the local cement industry this way. For example, the Chinese contractor building the new railway from Mombasa to Kigali has made commitments to get supply from local producers for this assignment so as to ensure foreign contractors also support local industries.

The EAPCA is looking forwarding to working in partnership with the incoming government to build Tanzania and create hundreds of jobs through partnership to help improve the livelihoods of the people of Tanzania.