The world’s fifth-largest cement producer with operations in 22 countries, the Italcementi Group has always regarded a commitment to representing Italian excellence through use of the best technology, know-how and management expertise as an essential element of its international strategy.

The Beijing event comes less than a year after the Italian Group’s entry on to the Chinese market (a move of great strategic importance, given that China expects to produce more than 1.4 billion Mt of cement this year, almost half the world output).

The initiative is further confirmation that Italcementi intends to play a major role on the Chinese market, contributing to the country’s development and taking part in the strategies drawn up by the Chinese Government to consolidate the cement industry by significantly reducing the number of producers by 2010 (currently around 5000) in order to optimize energy consumption and reduce environmental impact by eliminating obsolete plants.

The Italcementi Group’s choice of Western China’s Shaanxi province as the location from which to begin its operations in China reflects its appreciation of the region’s huge growth potential.
Although Shaanxi so far has not been fully involved in China’s extraordinary growth, today it is the object of growing Government attention under Beijing’s “Go West” program launched in 2000 to encourage investment in the nation’s western provinces.

Italcementi and Harlequin both originated in the city of Bergamo. Together they form a binomial for excellence that provides a channel, in this crucial Olympic year, to highlight the importance the Italcementi Group places on China and its determination to contribute to the country’s sustainable growth, also by fostering cultural cooperation to accompany its industrial expansion.