In a bold move to accelerate its 1.4-million-barrel-per-day ambition, Nigeria’s Dangote Group has signed a $400-million equipment agreement with China’s Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG), one of the world’s largest construction machinery manufacturers. The deal provides a fleet of heavy-duty machinery to complement existing assets deployed in the refinery’s ongoing build-out, which the company expects to complete within three years.
The agreement is far more than a procurement exercise. Under the expansion blueprint, polypropylene capacity will more than double to 2.4 million tons per year from the current 900,000 tons. Urea production in Nigeria is set to triple to nine million tons per year, and when combined with an existing three-million-ton plant in Ethiopia, would position Dangote as the world’s largest urea producer. Output of linear alkyl benzene — a key raw material for detergents — will rise to 400,000 tons per year, making the group the biggest supplier in Africa.
Dangote Group described the equipment deal as a strategic investment aligned with its ambition to become a $100-billion enterprise by 2030. ‘The additional equipment we are acquiring under this partnership will significantly enhance execution across our projects,’ the company said in a statement.
Source: engineeringnews.co.za