The Bim Son Cement Company and the Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. on April 27 signed the most important contract among the 72 bidding packages of the new production line project for a cement plant in central Thanh Hoa province.

Under the VND2 trillion deal, the Japanese side will provide designs, equipment, materials and technical services for a new production line of the Bim Son Cement Plant, company director Nguyen Huu Chac said.

The new production line will be installed at a total cost of over 4 trillion and will have a design capacity of 2 million tones of cement a year.

Installation is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year and the new production line will start operation by the end of 2008.