As the second largest cement producer in Turkey, the Limak Cement Group aims to become a global player by breaking into the African cement market. A new cement plant and ready-mix concrete facility in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire is being built by a Turkish and Ivoirian Joint Venture between Limak Cement and Afrikbat Groups, establishing the company "Limak Afrika." The joint venture began with construction of a plant with a design capacity for one million tons of cement and one million cubic meters of ready-mix concrete, alongside an investment capital expenditure of 60 million euros.Limak Afrika realized the groundbreaking ceremony of the First Stone on Dec. 18, 2015. The Limak Afrika plant will be ready to produce cement and ready-mix concrete in the first quarter of 2017. Upgrading the plant to a 1.7-meter cement production capacity as well as investments in block making and prefabricated products is projected in its business plan in the short term. The group believes that significant opportunities are offered by the African cement market due to robust economic growth, a need for huge infrastructure investments and a lack of a sufficient supply of cement in certain markets. These factors coincide with Limak Cements' vision of becoming a global player, and in line with this strategy the group is constructing greenfield cement grinding and packaging plants in two promising African markets: Mozambique and Cote d'lvoire. The investments will hopefully be completed in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Based on the market developments and operational aspects, upgrading these plants to be integrated cement plants is also in the growth strategy of the group.The Limak Cement Group currently has 10 cement plants with around 15 million tons of cement production capacity, 23 ready-mix concrete plants and three research and development centers in Turkey. The group has ambitious plans to further enhance its market position in Turkey, and new overseas investments are in the pipeline, aiming to make the company a global player. The group expects to become the largest cement producer in Turkey after the completion of three ongoing integrated cement plant investments, reaching a new overall capacity of 21.5 million tons.