Five countries – China, Ukraine, Japan South Africa and India – have exported steel valued at N327 billion ($1.63billion) to Nigeria in the last two years, as Ajaokuta Steel Plant is yet to take off, 38 years after it was established.
The plant design of the local steel plant, was based on the blast furnace route to iron production, with initial capacity of 1.3 million tons of liquid steel per annum with built-in capacity for future expansion to 2.5 million tons per annum in the first phase. It was learnt that Nigeria has over three billion tons of proven Iron ore deposit wasting away.
According to World Steel Association (WSA)’s statistics, between 2014 and 2015, China exported some steel products valued at $543.2 million; Ukraine, $389.7 million; Japan, $340.8 million; South Africa, $182.5 million and India, $179 .2 million. Nigeria spends about $4.5 billion on importation of basic metals, made up of processed steel, aluminum products and associated derivatives annually around the world.
The Steel Statistical Year Book 2015 revealed that Nigeria imported 1.57 million tons finished, semi-finished and finished steel products, 1.06million tons flat steel products, 447,000 tons of long products and 1.5million tons of production of hot rolled long products.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, had recently said that the country steel imports had reached 25 million tons per annum. Already, there is glut in global steel production, as capacity utilisation dropped below 50 per cent due to low demand. Coordinator, Steel Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (SMAN), Prince Felix Oba Okogie, said that there was low demand for locally produced steel in the Nigerian market.
Meanwhile, China had resolved to flood United States, Nigeria, Ghana and other global market with cheaper steel, as its crude steel production for April 2016 hits 69.4 million metric ton, an increase of 0.5 per cent compared to April 2015.
However, the United States had raised its import duties on Chinese steelmakers by over five folds after accusing them of selling their products below market prices.
The taxes of 522 per cent were specifically applied to Chinese-made cold-rolled flat steel, which was used in car manufacturing, shipping containers and construction. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Ambassador to Nigeria, Valeriy Aleksandruk, had said that his country was ready to invest $1 billion into Ajaokuta Steel Company in order to revive the plant.
The envoy disclosed this when he paid a courtesy call on the acting Director General of the Bureau of public Enterprises (BPE), Mr Vincent Akpotaire. Aleksandruk said that a Ukrainian company that built the plant – Tiajpromexport (TPE), had presented a proposal to the Federal Government to that effect.
