Africa builds new steelmaking plants
According to OECD Steel Committee, several new investment projects for steelmaking plants are already underway or planned in Africa, mainly in North African economies. As a result, steelmaking capacity in Africa could grow from 43.9 mmt in 2019 to 45.7 mmt in 2022 (+4.2%), in view of projects that are already underway.
Qatari Steel (AQS), which is a joint venture between Algeria’s IMETAL and Qatar’s Qatar Steel, started to operate a new Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) plant in Algeria with a capacity of 2.2 mmt in November of 2019 (Metal Expert, 2019).
Morocco’s Riva Industries has plans to install a new EAF with a capacity of 0.8 mmt, which are scheduled to begin operation in late 2020.
In addition, Namibia’s Groot Group started the construction of the country’s first steelmaking plant with a capacity of 1.0 mm in the Ohangwena region, which is planned to be completed in 2022. Some new capacity installations are, however, facing delays in the region. The new EAF facility which was planned to be built by Algeria’s ETRHB in 2020 has been delayed due to internal issues. Also, Egypt’s Ezz Rolling Mills (ERM) postponed the start of the operations of a new EAF plant with a capacity of 0.85 mmt from 2019 to late 2020.
