In November 2005, Heidelberg Materials entered the Kazakh market with the purchase of Bukhtarma Cement Company (BCC), one of the leading cement producers in Kazakhstan.
BCC operates a cement plant in the east of Kazakhstan, 100 kilometres south of the town of Ust-Kamenogorsk. The Bukhtarma cement plant supplies the entire Kazakh market via 11 terminals. The new CaspiCement plant in western Kazakhstan started production in July 2014. This cement plant is one of the first in the world to produce clinker using dry chalk and has a capacity of 0.8 million tonnes. It allows us to supply the oil- and gas-rich region on the Caspian Sea more cost-effectively.
The acquisition of the Italcementi Group in the second half of 2016 further strengthened Heidelberg Materials' presence in Kazakhstan. Italcementi entered the Kazakh market in 1998 through the acquisition of Shymkentcement. The cement plant is situated in the southern part of the country and began operations in 1958. At present, 4 out of 6 wet cement kiln lines are in use. Production capacity of the plant is 1.3 million tonnes of cement per year. In 2003 Shymkentcement started the production of oil well cement. A new ‘state of the art’ dry-process line will replace the wet-process lines currently operating and will enable the plant to boost efficiency and achieve a significant reduction in atmospheric emissions. The new plant, with a production capacity of approximately 1.2 million tonnes of cement per year, began operations in early 2016.
