Economy
Dangote Cement Vows to Close Demand-supply Gaps
Dangote Cement Plc has restated commitment to meet the demand gap and ensure the availability of cement products across the country.
The Group Chief Sales and Marketing Director of Dangote Cement, Mr Rabiu Umar, said this in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Umar said that the renewed commitment became necessary in view of the need to meet the current surge in the demand for cement products in Nigeria.
While noting that Nigeria had moved from importing cement to becoming an exporter of the product, Umar explained that the demand for cement rose globally as a fallout of the COVID-19 crisis.
“Nigeria is no exception as a combination of monetary policy changes and low returns from the capital market has resulted in a significant increase in construction activity.
“We got into COVID-19 last year and immediately after that there is a surge in demand and this is not particular to Nigeria alone. A couple of countries across the world are also experiencing the same; Mexico, South East Asia among others,” Umar said.
He emphasised that Dangote Cement was aggressively building up more capacity as it recently invested in a new line that had been completed in Obajana Plant.
According to Umar, the line is waiting for the power plant for it to commence operation.
He said, “we have a new plant in Okpella in Edo state that is also going to start operation very soon.
“For the last couple of years one of our plants in Gboko, Benue state has not worked; we have re-started the plant all in a bid to make sure that there is enough production.
“We have also increased the capacity of our Obajana plant and very soon, I am sure the market will be flooded with enough products.
“You also need to note that other operators are also increasing their capacity. In every business, what drives the price is the demand and supply.
“As a business we have not increased our price up until this point. So, what has happened in price increment in the cement products are forces of demand and supply.”
He said though the company has direct control over its ex-factory prices, it cannot control the ultimate price of cement when it gets to the market.
Umar advised that it would be important to distinguish Dangote’s ex-factory prices from prices at which retailers sell cement in the market.
He pointed out that the company was trying to make sure that it increased the supply of the product in the market and noted that the company would bring in 2,000 new trucks to ease distribution bottlenecks.
“We are buying these trucks and putting them out there to make sure that the distribution is also taken care of.
“This new development will lead to additional thousands of direct jobs in the country; apart from both direct and indirect jobs the plants will also create.
“Globally, by the time we are done, we believe that the additional capacity we will put on the market compared to what we have in the market today is probably the size of each of our competitors in terms of the additional volume that we will put in the market.
“And we believe that should help to manage the tension in the country as far as the situation with the skyrocketing prices of cement are concerned,” Umar said. (NAN)
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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