Tanzanian Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda.
THE Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda, has launched a 320bn/- steel plant in Dar es Salaam, which is expected to produce 80,000m tonnes of steel per year.
The Kamal Steel Limited plant, to produce reinforced bars, flat bars, angle bars, under the continuous casting machine technology, would be the biggest in terms of capacity in East Africa.
Speaking at the launch of the plant's expansion at Changombe in Dar es Salaam, Mr Pinda said that in order to reach the targets of Vision 2025, it was important that industries were developed since one of the important sectors of the economy was construction where "steel is a very important material."
He said such growth was facilitated by an increase in the demand for steel, iron sheets and construction cement, adding that such demand influenced the increase of production of such material in industries.
He said production of steel increased by 3.5 per cent from 46,690 tonnes in 2012 to 48,312 tonnes last year. Mr Pinda noted that production of iron sheets increased by 4.8 per cent from 81,427 tonnes in 2012 to 85,313 tonnes in 2013.
He said that production of cement increased by 18.9 per cent from 2.58 million tonnes in 2012 to 3.06 million tonnes last year. He noted that the demand for steel showed that there was an opportunity for the subsectors of the same to grow significantly. He said that after the expansion, the industry would be the biggest of such kind in East Africa and be able to produce 80,000 tonnes of steel metal per year.
It would enable Tanzania to produce more than its local demand and thus export the rest. He noted that while he had heard information that some business people were buying steel metal from neighbouring countries, he was glad to learn that those produced by Kamala steel are of international standards.
He thus asked various projects, building factories and all wananchi to increase the rate and volume of procuring steel metal from Kamal Steel in order to strengthen them and the local economy.
He pointed out that Tanzania is part of the Multilateral Intestment Guarantee Agency and International Centre for Settlement of Disputes and one of the pioneers of World Bank Foreign Investment Insurance Wing and thus making global investments safer locally.
He further added that the government would continue strengthening the investments climate, particularly through projects such as Big Results Now in the six priority areas of transport, access to finance, agriculture, infrastructure, water and education.
He particularly pointed out improving roads, ports, Tazara railway and the central railway line that connects 14 regions across the country.
Speaking earlier, the Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Ms Janet Mbene, said Vision 2025 had given industries a priority in moving the economy to the next level. She said the expansion of the plant was a result of the ministry's policy of banning exporting of scrap metals, which ensured that investors in the industry have access to raw materials.
She noted that as a result, the country has 15 steel mental plants, having increased from 5 in 2005 to 15 currently. She noted that they in total have capacity to produce 420,000 tonnes of steel per year.
She noted that the investment of $200m investment in the plant, is huge that would significantly surpass the local needs of 300,000 tons of metal steel.
Once it is complete, the local demand will only be eating up 71 per cent of the steel produced. Currently, some 110,000 tonnes of steel used in the country is imported. Yesterday, the deputy minister said the plant was one of the big tax payers, having paid 2bn/- in 2013/2014.
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