Posted by By LOUIS IBA on
The crisis in Nigeria's power sector is threatening to run the steel sector aground, with fears that about 10,000 workers may lose their jobs.
The crisis in Nigeria's power sector is threatening to run the steel sector aground, with fears that about 10,000 workers may lose their jobs.
Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Jide Mike, at a press conference in Lagos, while decrying the epileptic power supply in the country, said an imminent collapse of the steel sector was most likely as operators were severely hit by the electricity crisis.
Already, he said due to poor power supply from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to steel industries, the sector had witnessed a drastic loss in production capacity with attendant job losses.
'Because of poor power supplies, most of the steel industries are producing less than 30 per cent of their installed capacity and this also implies that jobs have been lost in the sector," a worried Mike said.
According to him, the smallest steel industry in the country had about 1,000 workers in its employment. Mike therefore estimated the present workforce in the surviving steel industries at over 10,000.
He said given the strategic importance of the sector, it was imperative for the PHCN to give top priority to the steel sector in the daily allocation of electricity.
Chairman of the Steel Manufacturers Group of MAN, Mr. F. O. Okojie, corroborating the views of the MAN boss, said given the threat of extinction faced by steel manufacturers, PHCN should provide dedicated lines to steel operators.
In his explanation, the steel industry could not rely on diesel generating sets for its manufacturing purposes as other sectors', due to the heavy nature of the machines and facilities at steel plans, which consumed electricity at much higher rate.
'The steel industry cannot survive on generators because the facilities and in fact the manufacturing processes sucks much more power than any other industry," he said, stressing that 'Steel manufacturing world over is high power demanding and only the kind of power from PHCN or any of such thermal, coal, or hydro plants can sustain the steel manufacturing processes."
He said MAN had approached the management of PHCN to come to the rescue of the few surviving steel industries in the country but that the response had not been so positive.
He said even the few investors that heeded government's call and had rushed to stake their equity in the sector in the last nine years, were beginning to feel frustrated due to the poor power supplies to steel firms.
Okojie said under normal situation, the Nigerian steel industry had a daily installed capacity of producing about three million metric tonnes of roll bars of steel commonly called iron rods.
He said statistically, the demand for steel in the country stood at between 500,000 and 650,000 metric tonnes per day and that with a capacity of three million metric tonnes, operators in the country had the capacity to export massively to other West African countries.
'Steel manufacturers need 24 hours electricity supply to remain in operation. MAN is building its own Independent Power Plant (IPP), but that will take some time. For now all what we are asking is for PHCN to allocate to us between 70 and 80 megawatts of electricity only for the entire industries to be in production to avert all the dangers and retardation that we fear," he concluded.