An investment of more than $3 million by Holcim (New Zealand) Ltd at its Westport cement works has no bearing on whether it will build a new $200 million plant at Weston, near Oamaru.
Holcim's capital projects manager, Ken Cowie, said yesterday the investment at Westport "fell into the realms of normal operational expenditure'' to keep the plant operating effectively.
It had no effect on whether the Weston plant, one of two options being considered by Holcim to meet a growing demand for cement in New Zealand, would go ahead.
The second option is continuing with the Westport plant with an appropriate maintenance and capital works programme and meeting any additional demand by importing cement.
Holcim has obtained resource consents for the Weston plant from the Otago Regional and Waitaki District Councils, subject to appeals to the Environment Court.
It will not make a decision on either option until late this year, at the earliest.
Work at the Westport plant has included the completion of a $2.3 million upgrade of the high voltage main substation, giving the plant more supply flexibility and reducing the risk of power interruption to the plant.
Major repairs to support structures on an incline conveyor structure have also been completed.
Mr Cowie said that even if Holcim decided to build the Weston plant, its Westport plant would still need to keep operating for at least a further four to five years after that decision to allow time for planning, construction and commissioning of the new works.
Westport continued to work to capacity, with record cement production of more than 507,000 tonnes last year.
For the past five years, Holcim New Zealand has had to import cement to supplement production from its Westport plant, which will celebrate 50 years of cement production in May.
