The Economy Ministry of Serbia will provide a EUR10.6m (US$12.4m) subsidy to Lafarge Serbia for the company’s new Obrenovac cement plant near Belgrade.
The government announced the plans for a new cement unit in August last year. Under the subsidy agreement, Lafarge plans to invest a total of EUR112.25m by the end of 2027. The company also committed to employ an extra 51 permanent full-time workers by the end of 2026 and complete the investment by the end of 2027. It has also pledged to maintain at least 320 permanent employees for five years after the project’s completion.
Lafarge Serbia’s Obrenovac facility will produce cement from the ashes of the nearby thermal power plants, operated by state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS). In February, EPS signed a contract to sell 20Mt of ashes over the next 10 years from its Nikola Tesla B thermal power plant in Obrenovac to a consortium comprising Lafarge Srbija and local fertilisers producer Elixir Group.
Furthermore, in February, Lafarge Serbia acquired Jazovnik stone quarry in the northwestern town of Vladimirci, 30km from the plant. This will allow the company to establish an entire logistics chain for the development of its new industrial complex, according to SeeNews.