Foreign firms eye investments in Syria's cement sector

More than 15 companies from several Arab and foreign countries have submitted their offers to invest in Syria's cement and building materials sector, according to the state-owned Syrian Arab News Agency, citing Mahmoud Fadhila, director of the General Company for the Manufacture and Marketing of Cement and Building Materials, or Omran, the state-owned enterprise responsible for the cement and building materials industry within the country.

"[Syria's Ministry of Economy and Industry] and [Omran] set a number of terms for investing in cement mills at [the] Tartous cement factory, as the company held [July 29] a session at Adra Cement Company headquarters on investing the mills of Tartous cement factory with representatives of 15 companies from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Germany", Fadhila said.

Fadhila added that these companies were not only looking to invest only in the mills of Tartous, but rather in all factories affiliated with the company, which will be offered for investing successively.

On July 24, Saudi Arabia's investment minister Khalid al-Falih, laid the foundation stone for the Al-Fayhaa Cement Plant project, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's Northern Region Cement, it said in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange. It will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 mt of white cement.

Syria is looking to rebuild after the war devastated much of its infrastructure and eroded many of its state institutions. Its new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has courted investment from nations including Turkey and Qatar. Other countries, including the US, have signaled their willingness to engage with the new transitional government.