Austrias Strabag plans to build a cement factory in Hungary, an investment expected to total HUF 33 billion (EUR 129.3 million). A final decision has been made recently on the location of the new plant, and the development will be carried out in Királyegyháza instead of Bükkösd which was the original site of the plant. One of the largest cement factories in Hungary is also located in this county, in Beremend.

Strabags new plant would create 200 jobs and production can start at the end of 2009, economic daily Napi Gazdaság writes. A year later, the factory could increase its output capacity to as much as 850,000 tonnes of cement a year.

Construction permits are still pending, and the construction works are likely to set off in September. The cement plant will be completed by 2010, and the village where the factory is to be set up will receive an annual HUF 100 million in tax revenues.

Three quarters of the annual output of the plant, which is between 600,000-850,000 tonnes, would be used by Strabag for its Hungarian, Austrian and Slovenian road construction works, said József Kőváry, leader of the cement plant project.

The Austrian firm wanted to build the cement plant originally in Bükkösd, south Hungary, at the site of its own quarry. Eco-organisations protested, however, and the local government called a referendum in the summer of 2004.

The majority of Bükkösd citizens were against the project, and this forced Strabag to look for another site. In this way, the name of Királyegyháza, among other settlements, was brought up where inhabitants welcomed the idea.

Strabag, which is to be listed on the Vienna Bourse in the near future, brought to life Nostra Cement Kft. in the summer of 2006. The newly-established Hungarian unit, which will be the operator of the plant, will build the factory on a 13-hectare plot purchased earlier.