CMS Cement celebrates 30 years as Sarawak 's Partner of Progress

Sunday, 30 November 2008, Kuching: CMS Cement Sdn Bhd, Sarawak's sole cement manufacturer today celebrated its 30 th Anniversary of production with recognition of being “ Sarawak 's Partner of Progress”.

Guest-of-honour Chief Minister of Sarawak commended CMS Cement, a core business of the evolving group of Cahya Mata Sarawak, for playing an instrumental role in Sarawak 's infrastructure development since 1978.

“As Sarawak's largest private sector development group, CMS has helped the State undergo rapid transformation over the last 30 years from an underdeveloped State to one whose development and living standards are comparable to the best in Malaysia ,” Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said during his keynote address.

The Chief Minister remarked that CMS' dynamic businesses set an example for other Sarawakian companies, who should ideally be taking the lead in spreading the wealth of the State among its own people, instead of waiting for big players from elsewhere to develop the State's potential and resources.

At CMS Cement's 30 th Anniversary gala dinner, some 600 guests including VIPs, dealers, representatives of cement bodies, former CMS Cement directors and employee-long-service awardees were in attendance.

The event served as a platform for CMS Cement to launch a new product, Cemplast masonry cement, and a new tagline for its Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC).

Dato' Richard Curtis, Cahya Mata Sarawak's (CMS) Group Managing Director, said that CMS Cement has always been committed to helping to build Sarawak in the most reliable and responsible manner possible.

“30 years in production has been about 30 years of cementing relationships with our stakeholders – customers of CMS Cement in urban town centers and in kampungs, with hundreds of our staff, with shareholders , and with the community around us,” he said.

According to Dato' Curtis, future plans of the company include plans to expand the production of CMS Clinker and the potential of exporting CMS Cement.

He gave assurances that CMS Cement would work with other cement manufacturers and trade bodies, and periodically review and reduce cement prices in order to further State development in a cost-effective manner, whether in times of economic boom or economic hardship.

Starting as a cement grinding operation located in Kuching with an annual production capacity of 500,000 tonnes in 1978, Cement Manufacturers Sarawak (as it was known then) has worked hard to meet every operational challenge to ensure a consistent supply of quality cement for the local market.

Today, CMS Cement's two plants have an annual total production capacity of 1.75 million metric tonnes.

It first set up its Kuching Pending grinding plant, located at Pending Industrial Estate, with first production in 1978. In 1989, Cement Manufacturers Sarawak was the first Sarawak company to be listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. In 1996 it changed its name to Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad, while the cement operation took the name CMS Cement Sdn Bhd, as part of the new conglomerate, CMS.

CMS Cement then added a second grinding plant in Bintulu in Decembr 1998, which today has an annual production capacity of 750,000 metric tonnes, catering to the needs of the rapidly growing north-east region of Sarawak.

In November 2007, CMS Cement became the new owner of its own raw materials manufacturer, CMS Clinker, to reduce reliance on clinker imports and become an integrated cement manufacturer.