Najran Cement Company has announced that it has signed a three-year contract with Chinese company CEIC to operate and maintain its third production for a three-year period.

The new line, which is still being built, is expected to come into production during the third quarter of this year and will have a capacity to produce 7,000 tons of cement per day.

Najran Cement floated on the Saudi stock exchange in April 2012, raising $226.5m to fund construction of the third line.

Last month, the company revealied that its first quarter sales for 2013 were 15.8% higher than in the corresponding period for 2012 at $39m. The volume of cement sold during the period also increased by 22% to 895,569 metric tonnes.