JK Cement, one of the leading north-based cement makers, is planning to set up a cement facility in Fujairah, one of the seven emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates (UAE), jointly with the local government.

According to sources, the company will invest $350-400 million in the proposed plant.

This will be the first foray by an Indian company for manufacturing cement in West Asia which was so far viewed as an export market.

"The Fujairah government is likely to pick up about 10 per cent equity in the proposed cement factory," Ibrahim Sa'ad Moh'd, director, planning and statistics, Government of Fujairah, told Business Standard.

"Our government will soon finalise how much investment will be made into this project," he said, who presently is on a visit to India to attend Elecrama 2008, an international electric and electronics exhibition, in Mumbai.

Confirming the development, A K Saraogi, chief financial officer, JK Cement, said, "We are exploring the possibilities of setting up a cement factory in the UAE. However, we are yet to finalise the capacities and investment for the project."

Without disclosing any further details, he said that the talks were in final stages and the amount of investment and capacity of the plant will be known within a month.

The Kanpur-based Rs 1,250-crore company, which currently has a capacity of  4.4 million tonnes, is setting up a greenfield plant at Muddapur, Karnataka, with a capacity of 3.5 million tonnes and at Nihon Nirman in Rajasthan of 0.4 million tonne.

Last year, Saraogi told Business Standard that the company had a vision of reaching 15 million tonne capacity within five years. For this, an investment of Rs 2,500 crore would be required.