Limestone & Cement of Nepal: Deposits and Cement Factory Directory

Limestone is Nepal's most commercially important industrial mineral. According to figures compiled by the Department of Mines and Geology (DMG) and reported in the Economic Survey of fiscal year 2013/14 (2070/71 BS), the country's estimated limestone deposits total about 1.07 billion tonnes, of which roughly 540 million tonnes are proven, 110 million tonnes semi-proven and 420 million tonnes classed as possible or feasible. Exploration since then has continued to add new prospects, with the DMG carrying out further limestone investigations in districts such as Salyan, Palpa and Udayapur.

This resource base underpins the cement industry, one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the Nepali economy. A Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) study published in 2021 counted 55 cement industries in operation — two government-owned, three with foreign direct investment and 50 domestic private firms — with a combined installed capacity of about 15 million tonnes a year. Capacity has kept growing since, with industry and media estimates in the mid-2020s putting installed capacity at roughly 22 million tonnes a year against domestic demand of only about 8–9 million tonnes.

The result is a sector that has moved from near-total import dependence to self-sufficiency and, since 2022, to exporting cement and clinker to India — though over-capacity means most plants now run well below their rated output.

Cement-grade limestone in Nepal occurs mainly in the carbonate rock belts of the Lesser Himalaya and the Mahabharat range, which run east–west across the hill districts. The DMG-derived inventory reported in 2014 named thirteen districts with significant deposits: Udayapur, Dhankuta, Sindhuli, Makwanpur, Lalitpur, Dhading, Syangja, Arghakhanchi, Surkhet, Dang, Salyan, Baitadi and Palpa. Several of these — Udayapur, Makwanpur, Dhading, Palpa and Dang — already host quarries that feed operating cement plants.

The link between deposit and factory is direct in Nepal. Udayapur Cement mines the Sindhali (Sinduwa) limestone hill near Jaljale and moves rock to the plant by a 13.8-kilometre cable ropeway; the company has stated that only about 15 percent of the deposit had been extracted as of 2020 and that the mine could sustain operations for many decades. Hetauda Cement and Shivam Cement draw on Makwanpur's limestone, Huaxin Cement Narayani sits on the Dhading deposits, Ghorahi Cement uses the Sarri deposit in Dang, and Palpa's hills supply plants in the Lumbini corridor, including the Hongshi Shivam mega-plant, whose Bhutuke–Nisdi mine in Palpa is inspected by the DMG.

Licensing activity shows the resource is still being opened up. In late 2025, for example, the government cleared several companies to extract limestone from forest areas, including sites in Mathagadhi Rural Municipality of Palpa, Bhimphedi Rural Municipality of Makwanpur and Chaudandigadhi Municipality of Udayapur. The DMG remains the licensing and regulatory authority for all mining under the Mines and Minerals Act, 2042 (1985).

Nepal's first cement factory was the state-owned Himal Cement Company at Chobhar, on the southwestern rim of the Kathmandu Valley, established in 1967 (2023/24 BS) with an initial capacity of about 160 tonnes per day. Before Chobhar, virtually all cement was imported. Himal Cement supplied the valley for three decades but was chronically loss-making and heavily polluting — it was blamed for much of Kathmandu's winter dust — and was shut down in 2002; its site later became the Chobhar dry port.

The state built two larger plants in the following decades: Hetauda Cement Industry Ltd in Makwanpur, established in 1976 (2032/33 BS) with Asian Development Bank support and an annual capacity of about 260,000 tonnes, and Udayapur Cement Industries Ltd, established on 14 June 1987 (Jestha 2044 BS) with Japanese design and construction. From the 2000s the private sector took over the running: Jagdamba Cement began grinding in Rupandehi in 2001, Shivam Cement started commercial production in Hetauda in 2011, and Sarbottam Cement followed at Sunwal in 2014 with Nepal's first vertical-roller-mill line.

The decisive shift came with large foreign-invested integrated plants: Hongshi Shivam Cement (a 70:30 joint venture of China's Hongshi Holdings and Nepal's Shivam Holdings) opened its 6,000-tonne-per-day plant at Sardi, Nawalparasi in 2018 with an investment of around US$350 million, and Huaxin Cement Narayani commissioned a 3,000-tonne-per-day plant in Dhading in 2021. Around 2019/20 Nepal became self-sufficient in cement, and on 9 July 2022 Palpa Cement Industries shipped 3,000 sacks of its Tansen brand across the border — the country's first-ever cement export to India.

Udayapur Cement Industries Limited (UCIL) is the larger of Nepal's two operating state-owned cement producers. Established on 14 June 1987 (2044 BS) at Jaljale in Triyuga Municipality, Udayapur district, the plant was designed by Onoda Engineering of Japan and built by a consortium of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Tomen Corporation. Its dry-process kiln had an initial rated capacity of 800 tonnes of cement per day, upgraded to about 900 tonnes per day in 2019, with further expansion toward 1,100 tonnes per day planned.

UCIL sells under the well-known 'Gaida' (rhinoceros) brand. Limestone comes from the company's own Sindhali hill quarry, delivered by a 13.8-kilometre cable ropeway — one of the longest industrial ropeways in Nepal — while gypsum and some other inputs are imported. The company has long been cited, together with Hetauda Cement, as one of the few state-owned enterprises to have achieved cumulative operating profits, although output fluctuates with maintenance cycles and coal supply.

Its sister enterprise, Hetauda Cement Industry Ltd in Lamsure, Hetauda, has struggled in recent years. The 1976-vintage plant, with capacity of roughly 260,000 tonnes a year (about 18,000 bags a day), has suffered repeated shutdowns for want of raw materials and working capital; it resumed production in April 2025 after a five-month halt, and by 2026 Nepali media were reporting that a deepening financial crisis had brought the factory close to closure. The contrast between the two state plants is a recurring theme in debates over public-enterprise reform in Nepal.

The following directory lists the most significant operating cement factories in Nepal, with location and indicative capacity where reliably reported. The NRB's 2021 study counted 55 operating cement industries in total, a mix of integrated plants (which produce their own clinker from limestone) and grinding units (which grind purchased or imported clinker into cement); dozens of smaller grinding units are omitted here. Capacities are as stated by the companies or in the cited studies and may change with expansions.

Geographically, production clusters along two corridors: the Lumbini–Nawalparasi–Rupandehi belt in the west, fed by Palpa and Arghakhanchi limestone, and the Bagmati–east Terai belt (Makwanpur, Sindhuli, Siraha, Udayapur) in the centre and east. Rupandehi and Nawalparasi alone host a large share of national capacity, which is why local media call the area Nepal's cement hub.

The Nepal Rastra Bank's 2021 study, 'A Study on the Impact of Cement Industry with FDI in Nepal', remains the most-cited official snapshot of the sector. It reported 55 operating cement industries with installed capacity of 15 million tonnes a year, against domestic demand of about 9.05 million tonnes; actual production was about 7.49 million tonnes, supplemented at the time by some imports of clinker. The study projected demand could reach 26 million tonnes by 2024/25 on the back of post-earthquake reconstruction and infrastructure spending — a projection that did not materialise as construction activity slowed.

By the mid-2020s the imbalance had widened: industry bodies and media reports put installed capacity at around 22 million tonnes a year (some estimates cite up to 25 million tonnes across roughly 60–72 registered plants) while domestic demand stagnated near 8–9 million tonnes, leaving many plants running at an estimated 30–40 percent of capacity. This over-capacity is the main driver of Nepal's export push. The government's budget for FY 2022/23 introduced a cash incentive of 8 percent for cement exported using Nepali raw materials.

Exports began on 9 July 2022 and grew quickly at first: cement and clinker exports to India were worth about Rs 779 million in FY 2022/23 (2079/80 BS), and roughly Rs 2.6 billion in just the first seven months of FY 2023/24. The Cement Manufacturers' Association of Nepal (CMAN) estimates existing capacity could support exports of up to 15 million tonnes a year worth around Rs 150 billion. Growth has been constrained, however, by the difficulty Nepali producers face in renewing Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification, which is mandatory for selling cement in the Indian market.

Searches for the 'best cement in Nepal' rarely have a single answer, because the right cement depends on the job. Nepali factories produce three main types: Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), the strongest and fastest-setting, used for structural concrete, columns and slabs; Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), which blends fly ash or pozzolana for better workability, lower heat and long-term durability in plaster, masonry and general construction; and Portland Slag Cement (PSC), valued for resistance to sulphates and moisture. Major brands in the market include Shivam, Hongshi, Sarbottam, Arghakhanchi, Jagdamba, Shaurya (Maruti Supreme/OPC lines), Ghorahi's Sagarmatha, Palpa's Tansen and Udayapur's Gaida.

Whatever the brand, buyers should check for the NS mark — the Nepal Standard certification issued by the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) — along with the type (OPC/PPC/PSC), grade and date of manufacture printed on the bag, since cement loses strength in storage. Independent strength tests are occasionally published; in 2020, for instance, laboratory tests reported in the international trade press placed Hongshi Shivam's OPC at the top among Nepali-made cements, though results vary batch to batch.

For ordinary house construction, engineers in Nepal commonly specify OPC 43 or 53 grade for structural members and PPC for plastering and non-structural work. Price differences between major NS-certified brands are usually modest, so freshness, availability and correct type matter more than brand prestige.