Egypt and South Africa have outpaced Nigeria in steel production inspite of the country’s huge capacity,administrator of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited,Engr.Sumaila Abdul-Akaba,has said.
He disclosed this at a stakeholders roundtable in Lokoja organized by the CSO Coalition for the revitalization of the steel plant
Nigeria’s steel production in spite of its huge capacity,he said,is placed at a negligible 1.3million tons per annum,while Egypt and South Africa with similar technologies and smaller population figures are producing 5.5 and 6.4 million tonnes respectively.
He said:” Sadly even this locally produced steel products are from some small steel rolling mills that use 100% scrap as raw material because Ajaokuta Steel Plant (ASCL) and Delta Steel Plant (DSCL) are not available for the production of crude steel which is the main stay of the steel sector anywhere in the World”.
He said in order to achieve meet United Nations Development Programme standard, Nigeria must up its capacity to produce about 18million tons of steel and related products per annum.
