Dangote truck assembly plant: Developing Nigeria’s auto-industry
From cement, sugar, flour, salt, foods and petrochemicals, Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote group, has extended his vision of industrialising Nigeria to truck assembling.
The Dangote group has over the years got the largest assemblage of trucks in the country. At the last count, it had more than 20,000 trucks travelling the length and breadth of Nigeria. It is hardly possible to travel to any part of the country and not see a Dangote truck on the road at every five minutes’ interval.
Sourcing the group’s large fleet of trucks definitely must have cost a fortune in foreign currency. To save forex and employ Nigerians, in his esteemed tradition of being the private sector largest employer of labour, Dangote signed an agreement in 2014 with Chinese truck makers, National Heavy Duty Truck Group Company Limited, Sinotruk, on establishing a truck assembly plant in Nigeria. The target markets of the trucks are Nigeria and other African countries.
The Dangote Sinotruk plant, valued at $130 million, is located on Oba Akran Street in Ikeja, Lagos, and was designed to produce a full range of commercial vehicles covering heavy duty trucks, medium trucks, light trucks and other related vehicles for haulage and logistics, construction and industrial uses. It has a production capacity of 10,000 trucks per year. According to the deal agreement, the plant is 65 per cent owned by the Dangote Group, trading under Dangote Industries Limited, and Sinotruk with the remaining 35 per cent equity stake.
Speaking two weeks ago, during a media tour of the facility to mark the formal roll-out of the Sinotruk heavy duty trucks, the Group General Manager (Projects), Hikmat Bahadur Thapa, and the General Manager, Dangote Sinotruk, Daniel Biju, disclosed that the plant was presently producing four to five trucks a day. The plant will, however, soon be embarking on two assembly shifts from next month, while the local production of the cabin or hood will begin by February 2018 as part of the plans to shore up the local content in the trucks and raise capacity utilisation.
Daily production is expected to rise to about 16 units a day in the next few months, and 20 to 30 daily, when full operation begins during the third stage of the implementation of the plant project.
“One of the objectives of setting up Dangote Sinotruk is to form a base for heavy-duty trucks and commercial vehicles in West Africa. With this, not only the market demands in Nigeria can be met, but also the requirements of covering the neighbouring countries will be gradually met,” Hikmat Thapa disclosed.
The plant’s officials informed the visiting journalists that the project dovetails into government’s drive towards the diversification of the economy with emphasis on local production.
To deepen efforts in this regard, Biju explained that the truck maker was having talks with its partners to encourage their input suppliers in China to come to Nigeria and set up parts production facilities in order to further shore up the local content level in the madein-Nigeria Sino trucks.
With the coming on stream of the assembly plant, all the companies hitherto engaged in the local assembly of Sinotruk and the importation of fully built-up units will now have to come under the umbrella of Dangote Sinotruk as the joint venture confers on it exclusive control of the brand in the Nigerian market. A nationwide distribution and after-sales service network, it was gathered, would be set up to ensure availability and ease of usage by customers.
The Project Manager of the Dangote Group, Tijani Momodu, emphasised strict quality control in the truck assembling process. He said production was never over until the vehicles were thoroughly inspected on the relevant equipment to obviate skidding, and the okay was given on the axle weight, brakes, exhaust, steering, speakers and the headlamps.
The plant is equipped with a training centre where the technical workers’ skills and knowledge of the Sinotruk technology are updated.
“Sinotruk is very strict on quality. Quality control experts hold regular training for the staff to ensure that everything is done in compliance with Sinotruk’s high standards,” Biju told the guests, and assured them that on the strength of a technological intercourse between the Chinese brand and MAN, a reputable German truck-making giant, “the Sinotruk technology is as good as German.”
Dangote Industries Limited, the largest manufacturing conglomerate in West Africa, was established in May 1981 and now produces products that range from cement, fertilizer, sugar and flour to salt, pasta and drinks. It is also engaged in providing services in petroleum, natural gas, automobile and communications, as well as in iron and steel.
Its partner in the trucks assembly project, Sinotruk, was established in 1960, and is the cradle of China’s heavy-duty truck. It is the largest production and export base for heavy-duty trucks in China.
Highly impressed by the Dangote truck assembly initiative to be producing thousands of trucks, the federal government has described it as a good sign of better things to come to Nigeria.