Hetauda Cement Industry to resume cement production from first week of February

Published On: January 18, 2024 08:47 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

MAKAWANPUR, Jan 18: Hetauda Cement Industry (HCI), which has been closed for about three months due to the lack of coal, is set to resume production from the first week of February.

General Manager of HCI, Basanta Raj Pandey, said that the management of the factory has requested the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies to provide subsidies to help resume its production.

Stating that a request has been made to provide subsidy to supply the required coal to the factory as soon as possible, he said that by the first week of February, the target is to start the coal procurement process and start the production of cement.

The industry is facing difficulties in producing cement due to an economic crisis. Although the management of the industry is currently trying to raise sufficient financial resources, it has been said that due to the inability to raise resources immediately, there has been an obstacle to the process of purchasing and bringing coal through a call for tenders.

Naveen Kumar Karna, deputy general manager of HCI, said that the factory currently needs about 3,000 metric tons of coal to start regular production and that that amount of coal is enough to produce cement for a month.

According to him, there are only about 600 metric tons of coal in the store of the industry. Karna said that the remaining 225,000 sacks of cement produced by the industry could not be sold immediately in various cities, so a financial crisis occurred.

The Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Ramesh Prasad Rijal, observed the economic crisis to understand the underlying reasons after conducting an emergency monitoring of the factory a few days ago. He also inquired about repairing and operating the equipment immediately that are in poor condition.

On that occasion, Minister Rijal informed Karna that the Prime Minister and his ministry are discussing arranging all possible subsidies to bring the industry back into operation as soon as possible.

HCI General Manager Pandey mentioned that although the factory’s previous target of producing cement was 16,000 sacks per day, now it can produce only 10,000 sacks per day due to the poor condition of various equipment.