Sinoma International became the first Chinese cement engineering firm to tap the US market as the company unveiled a landmark engineer-purchase (EP) deal with its US counterpart yesterday.

"It's a milestone project for China's cement engineering segment and for Sinoma International's own development. It's the first time for China to enter the cement engineering market of a developed industrial country," said Liu Zhijiang, chairman of Sinoma International Engineering Co Ltd.

Sinoma, a Shanghai-listed arm under China National Materials Industry Group Corp (Sinoma Group) announced that it had inked the EP contract with Votorantim Cimentos North America Inc to build the SCC4000TPD cement production line in Florida.

The contract is valued at $42 million, with the term of the deal being 20 months. The production line will hit 4,000 tons per day.

Since the start of 2007, Sinoma International has signed engineering deals with companies from Vietnam, Brazil, Thailand, Tanzania and the US, the total contract value running into $270 million. Its international contracts obtained last year were valued at $1.404 billion, involving 14 countries.

Sinoma International had a 25 percent global market share in 2005, according to Wang Wei, the company's president. Its market share was even higher in 2006, holds Tan Zhongming, president of Sinoma Group.

The growth mainly stems from Sinoma International's well-developed markets such as the Middle East and South Asian countries.