SMC set to launch billet mill in Nigeria
Standard Metallurgical Company Limited (SMC) is set to launch a billet mill to produce standard wire rods in Nigeria.
The mill will likely create 1000 jobs in the country.
Mohammed Saade, managing director, SMC, made this known to journalists during a factory tour of the company’s facilities in Shagamu, Ogun State, weekend by Okechukwu Enelamah, minister of industry, trade and investment.
“This will be the first factory to produce billet suitable for producing standard wire rods in Nigeria. All wire rods produced today in Nigeria are being made from imported billets, but in three months from now, we are going to start producing billets in Nigeria,” Saade said.
He stated that the visit of the minister of industry was to check the company’s multi-phase factory to see that made- in -Nigeria steel was already on ground.
The mill will run on the company’s four gas turbines, he said, adding that the company, already producing wire rods locally using imported billets, would start producing its own billets after the official commissioning of the plant in November this year.
According to the managing director, the new billet mill would help reduce the country’s importation bill as the mill would be producing 260,000 tonnes per year, which was a boost to the country’s wire rod production.
“Currently we are producing 300,000 tonnes of wire rods per year. With phase two, we would produce 260,000 tons of billets in Nigeria. Nigeria today is a big market and we are committed to meeting local demands and the surplus can go to the ECOWAS market,” he said.
“The entire wire rods’ need of Nigeria is 600,000 tons per annum. The steel sector is the bone of any economy in the world,” the managing director added.
He thanked the government for its support to the private sector and assistance to get the dollars to import the machines for the mill, stating that the organisation intended to start sourcing 100 percent inputs locally to produce its billets within the next one and half year.
Also speaking to journalists during the inspection, Ali Saade, group chairman, SMC, represented by Ali Abdallah, deputy managing director, SMC said: “I would like to thank the minister and his delegation for their kind visit, which reflected the interest of the Nigerian government to encourage the private sector, notably the industrial ones.”
Speaking also, Okechukwu Enelamah, said that steel manufacturing was the heart of industrialisation of the country.
Enelamah commended SMC for the impressive investment in the country. “It has been a very impressive showing so far, we would continue to support you to achieve made-in-Nigeria,” he said.
Josephine Okojie