What could prompt the cooperative efforts of a Lebanese bank to engage a French building materials company and 15 additional regional and international financial institutions from all over the globe and seal a $380 million deal? Apparently, cement is the glue behind one of largest private financing syndicates for industrial projects in the Levant. “The current construction boom in the Middle East which has increased the consumption of cement, combined with an acute shortage in the region, has driven cement prices to unprecedented levels. Our region, and Syria in particular, has a shortage of about 4 million tons per year,” explained Ramzi Saliba, General Manager of Bank Audi’s corporate banking division. The Syrian cement deficit comes alongside an ongoing housing crisis and lack of raw materials, a result of decades of nationalization and the centralized economic policies under the ruling Baath Party. For decades cement production remained a state monopoly
