Left to the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, there is no room for passenger traffic on the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri standard gauge line. The line is dedicated to service the bulk needs of the complex and its sister institute at Aladja. Babatunde Suru, General Manager, Engineering Works & Services Department, in this chat with ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE sheds light on why the nation needs the dedicated line if its dream of industrialisation must be realised.
Why a dedicated rail line?
Originally, this rail line was designed to serve Ajaokuta Steel Company because it was to move raw materials for Ajaokuta which was Iron Ore concentrate from Itakpe to Ajaokuta and also to move the Iron Ore Super concentrate to Aladja and we are to bring raw material from Warri Port down to Ajaokuta and Itakpe.
That was the original concept and we are still sticking to the original concept which was actually to move goods and materials in bulk. That is the only way we could go because we need over two million tons of iron ore concentrate in Ajaokuta per year to be able to service our steel plants, while Aladja needs over 500,000 tons per annum, to service the steel plants there. So majorly, it was designed to serve these two industrial plants.
How set is the iron/steel sector?
Iron Ore sector is set because we are going to another phase of transition. You’ve been hearing a lot of noise about Ajaokuta and the fact that we are in transition. We are thinking of doing things differently now so that we can bring in investors to come. That is almost complete and most of the things delaying our take off are majorly infrastructure of which the rail line in a major component. We cannot move bulk materials on road. In developed countries you move bulk materials by rail and that’s why we are waiting for rail. If you look at our set up, apart from iron ore, we have to move limestone and we have to move dolomites. We are also still intending to have a lot of sidings to join this rail line to bring in limestone from Jakura, bring Dolomite from Osasa, somewhere in Edo State, we are still going to have sidings to these areas to bring in products because the focus is Ajaokuta.
We are still thinking of having a rail line through Otukpo to Onne to bring in raw materials called coke from Onne Ports to Ajaokuta for which the bridge over the Niger has already been built so far moving bulk material in any industrial sector is by rail and that is why we are trying to get all these other lines running. So, the passenger train to me is very negligible. Such that when we start to move bulk, passengers would not have a way again, especially except that you must have two routes.
How ready is Ajaokuta for Nigeria’s industrialisation phase?
We are ready. The steel plant is ready 98 per cent our major headache has been external infrastructure. How do we move raw materials into Ajaokuta? How do we move finished products out of Ajaokuta? The only way is by rail and that’s why we are all waiting.
“Once the rail is completed, we are good to go because at every time, we have to have at four months of materials on ground before we can lit the blast furnace and when we lit the blast furnace for seven years we don’t put it off it has to keep on running because it is a chemical plant.
A chemical plant is where you have molten metals, you don’t stop it. That is why we have our own power plant as well as two dedicated power lines to Ajaokuta. It is a plant that power must not go at any time. It is a plant where power and materials must be on ground at any time.
That’s the importance of the rail to us. That is the only thing stalling the roll out of Ajaokuta, otherwise, we are 98 per cent ready. We have 43 plants installed and 40 are completed so we are set, but without the raw material we can’t move on especially the iron ore. It is almost 75 per cent of our raw material. It is coming from Itakpe, where we have constructed a siding to branch off and drop the raw material at Ajaokuta.
What should we expect from Ajaokuta?
The takeoff of the steel plant is the takeoff of Nigeria’s industrialisation. We are going to start by giving to the nation between 1.3 million and 1.5 million tons of liquid steel per annum and you know steel is the cradle of any industrialisation.
A nation that does not have steel cannot talk about industrialisation that is why we have been waiting for this rail to take off. We have sunk trillion of naira on importation of steel and allied products over the years but with this, very soon we are going to begin production and gradually, we would be self-sufficient and soon we would be able to go into the second phase when we would be able to produce flat sheet for the automobile industry. We are not there yet, but very soon, we are going to get there.
How long would this take?
With a functional rail system, in one and a half years, we are there. The only thing that could delay us is this external infrastructure which is not under our own purview. It is under the purview of the Ministry of Transportation. So by 2020 where should we be?
By that time, indeed by next year if this external inrstructure is sorted, we should be producing liquid steel, because we have all the raw material. That is our comparative advantage. Japan is a small island, they have no mineral resources, not even one, but they are the second largest producer of steel in the world, but we have all the raw material within 80-kilometre radius. Itakpe is just 60 kilometres to Ajaokuta by rail; Jakura is 80 kilometres away from us; where we are going to get Dolomite is just 60 kilometres from us; so, all the raw materials is just within our vicinity and they are in bulk that could last up to at least 50 years, the problem is just getting the raw material to Ajaokuta because without it we cannot start.