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Ukrinform The German group’s two Ukrainian cement plants will no longer be burning expensive Russian natural gas

Dyckerhoff, the leading German producer of cement and construction-related products, plans to eliminate increasingly expensive natural gas imported from Russia as a fuel in two Ukrainian cement factories. It will burn less expensive coal instead. Serhiy Dudzyany, director of sales at Dyckerhoff Ukraine, said such investments, costing 15 million euros at each place, will be made in the two Ukrainian plants: Pivdencement (above), based in Olshansky of Mykolayiv Oblast, and Volyn Cement, located in Zdolbuniv of Rivne Oblast. “We plan to work in 2010 using coal. I don’t know whether it will start in March or May, but it will be coal,” Duzyany said. He said plans envision that both plants could also use biofuels in the future. Dyckerhoff operates 20 cement plants worldwide. It is one of several foreign groups on Ukraine’s vast cement market, including fellow German company HeidelbergCement, France’s Lafarge and Russia’s EuroCement.