Oman Cement Company has announced that one of its mills with a capacity to grind 150 metric tons per hour has developed a major technical fault and has had to be closed down.
In a statement to the Muscat Securities Market, the firm said that an inspection by a technical expert from the manufacturer of the mill s equipment stated that the required spare parts could take up to 14 weeks to deliver.
The company s chief executive officer, Jamal Shamis Al Hooti, said that it has also "approached alternate sources for carrying out repairs at a shorter period and their response is awaited".
As a result of the outage, the company said that production could drop by as much as 360,000 metric tons between June and September if it has to wait for the part.
Al Hooti added that it would try to compensate for the shortfall "by better utilization of grinding facility during this period and the period subsequent to the repair" as well as attempting to find other measures to boost profitability.
