News: Oman cement Company (OCC) announced that it has registered a new joint venture firm (Al Wusta Cement Company) along with Raysut Cement Company (RCC) to develop a new cement plant in Duqm, the greenfield economic zone. The project is currently under feasibility studies, and no further details on planned capacity or capex are available.   Our View: Even though this is the first time a solid statement on Duqm Cement plant is issued, the plan to set up new cement plant in Duqm was initially started in 2009, but was put on hold during 2011 citing shortage of natural gas. Currently, Oman has enough cement supply to meet its demand of c8.0mn tonnes annually (Oman have 7.6mn tonnes annual capacity, and almost 3.5mn tonnes of cement imported from UAE’s surplus market annually); hence, we do not see any significant positive impact on OCC and RCC in the medium term, but this would be mostly to meet the future demand expectation in the Duqm region and to cater export markets, in our view, as the proposed plant site is close to Duqm port. We are still awaiting details about capacity and capex to provide further commentary on the project. (Sameer Kattiparambil, Wafaa Baddour, CFA)   Oman Cement: OMR0.490 as of 16 August, Rating: Neutral, FV: OMR0.518 per share, MCap: USD427mn, OCOI OM / OCCO.OM Raysut Cement: OMR1.500 as of 16 August, Rating: Neutral, FV: OMR1.363 per share, MCap: USD789mn, RCCI OM / RAYC.OM