Nigerian billionaires Dangote and Rabiu face a Chinese-owned rival as cement prices double

The Chinese-owned cement maker that used to be Lafarge Africa is recruiting distributors across Nigeria, asking each to bring at least 250 million naira of working capital, as it prepares new production to take market share from Dangote Cement and BUA Cement.

HBM Nigeria also wants each distributor to hold a warehouse of 500 square metres and have access to five trucks of 20 or 40 tonnes, Legit reported.

HBM has made cement in Nigeria for 67 years, almost all of them as Lafarge Africa, one of the country's three large producers. China's Huaxin Cement, based in Wuhan and one of the ten largest cement groups in the world, agreed in December 2024 to buy Holcim's 83.81% stake for about $1 billion. A Senate directive held the deal up, and it closed in August 2025. Shareholders approved the new name in April, and HBM stands for Huaxin Building Materials.

Revenue rose 53% to 1.1 trillion naira in 2025, crossing a trillion for the first time, and profit after tax nearly tripled to 273 billion naira. The shares climbed from about 58 naira when the sale was announced to about 226 naira by May. The company is adding capacity at its Sagamu and Ashaka plants through 2026 and into 2027, which is what the new distributors are meant to sell.

A 50kg bag of cement now retails for between 12,500 and 15,000 naira, against 5,500 to 6,000 in 2023. At the midpoint, 100 bags cost about 1.375 million naira, up from about 575,000.

In July, Dangote Cement sold for 13,000 to 15,000 naira a bag, BUA for 12,000 to 14,500 and HBM for 12,000 to 13,500. By September, dealers were quoting about 12,000 naira for all three brands and for Mangal. In Kano, dealers put the supply price of Dangote Cement at about 11,450 naira and BUA at about 10,500.

The prices have climbed even though Nigeria can make far more cement than it uses. Capacity could reach 75.25 million tonnes a year once planned expansions are finished, against demand estimated at 25 million to 30 million tonnes. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is investigating whether cement prices have been manipulated.

The two companies HBM is going after are both expanding. Dangote Cement is the largest producer in Africa. BUA Cement is building a three-million-tonne plant at Ososo in Edo State for December 2027 and a brownfield expansion of similar size at Sokoto for December 2028, which will take its installed capacity to 20 million tonnes, after its profit rose 381% in 2025.

Aliko Dangote is worth $51.3 billion and Abdul Samad Rabiu $12.2 billion, according to Forbes.