“We import ‘dust’ with hard currency”… Al-Inmaa & Construction GM: Syrian cement has the raw materials — what it lacks is investment and technology
Al-Inmaa & Construction GM Bashir Al-Abdullah at the Damascus cement expo: Syria has the raw materials, the demand-production gap is the investment opportunity, and the local investor is absent.
Damascus — On the sidelines of the Syria Cement & Ready-Mix Concrete Conference & Exhibition 2026, held at the Damascus Fairgrounds from 15 to 17 October, Bashir Al-Abdullah, general manager of Al-Inmaa & Construction for Trade & Contracting, sketched in remarks to Sawa News agency a sector he sees as the cornerstone of reconstruction: raw materials available locally, a wide production gap, and an absent local investor.
A strategic material… and the raw materials are ours
Al-Abdullah describes cement as a strategic material indispensable to rebuilding what the war destroyed: it goes directly into structural elements, and from there into infrastructure and residential and service buildings. Syria, he says, holds the raw materials needed to produce cement, so the need is limited to importing modern technology to raise production capacity.
A gap between demand and production
The country’s cement needs far exceed what is produced locally, and as rehabilitation and construction work expands, the gap between demand and supply widens. Importing, though a temporary necessity, costs the national economy hard currency that could have been directed toward advanced technology, instead of being spent on what Al-Abdullah called the “dust” of cement.
The most notable absentee: the Syrian investor
Despite the availability of raw materials and local expertise, Al-Abdullah notes a marked absence of the Syrian investor from this sector, compared with a foreign presence. He sees the industry’s future as dependent on activating and encouraging the local investor to take part in rebuilding his country, while welcoming foreign investment provided it serves the country’s interest: production facilities are fixed assets that cannot be carried away, and their added value stays in the country — making cement investment, in his view, a sustainable one.
Simultaneous context: the sector is moving
These remarks come as Syria’s cement sector sees simultaneous movement: a specialised conference and exhibition bringing together around 50 companies from 9 countries in Damascus, and the laying, days ago, of the foundation stone for the Ain Issa cement plant in Raqqa Governorate, with a production capacity of more than 6,000 tonnes per day and around 800 jobs.
CIP Reading
Al-Abdullah’s message is addressed to the local investor before the foreign one: the gap between demand and production is the opportunity itself; the raw materials and expertise exist, and the missing link is capital and technology. Whoever enters today with a production facility places a fixed asset in a long-term reconstruction market — and every tonne produced locally is hard currency that stays in the country.
Prepared by: Construction and Investment Prime Magazine in Syria (CIP)
Sources: Bashir Al-Abdullah’s remarks to Sawa News agency (15 October 2026); CIP files (Syria Cement & Ready-Mix Concrete Conference & Exhibition 2026; Ain Issa cement plant).
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