FG Urged to Stop Importation of Substandard Steel-Body Vehicles

The nation’s steel industry will not grow to support the economy with the importation of substandard steel products into the country, the federal government has been told. The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Metal Mate Limited, Toyin Ibrahim stated this while briefing motoring journalists in Lagos on the company’s 25 years of successful operations. According to Ibrahim, the influx of steel bodied vehicles, such as trailers, lorries and others have negatively impacted on the existence of the steel industry in the country. He stated that without steel, no country would survive, as development of any nation revolved round steel production. The government, he said must restrict the importation of trucks, tankers and other steel materials from China through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to ensure the growth of the industry adding that the auto policy was developed as a result of this but remarked that the auto policy did not work. “The body language of the government is like with time they will keep quiet. It’s wrong, this government should be supporting the establishment of industries. All the notable industries are gone but if we have people doing these things, we should support them. “Most of the tankers on our roads are imported and we have a lot of potentials here in Nigeria. We welcome local competitions because our people still rely on going abroad to get these things.” Ibrahim, who has trained over 35 apprentices as automotive/structure engineers since its inception 25 years ago, blamed government for unfavorable polices that hindered the growth of the steel sector and appealed to steel manufacturers to step up their production in order to meet the markets demands. He said there were a lot of potentials in steel business and opportunities to expand but lamented the poor power situation in the country has negatively affected its operations as he relied on generating plants round the clock for its steel works. “Two major areas are the greatest challenges we are facing now, power supply and materials. For over two years we have been running on generating plants. Also the substandard materials for our products is also a challenge.” Ibrahim called on government to intervene by establishing industries in the country to engage jobless youths, explaining that competition would boost productivity in the steel business. “We see competitors as partners, a lot of Nigerian big men are greedy. Nigerian has the capacity to achieve a lot but greed has not allowed us to achieve a lot.” Ibrahim said the company’s 25 anniversary would be used to reward those customers that have been with them since inception in appreciation for their unalloyed support to the company. He said he was able to access the Central Bank of Nigeria intervention fund to boost his business, and that he was looking forward to getting more funds for expansion and assembly plant from the Bank of Industry.