Dangote Group of Companies has established a $100million truck assembly plant in Lagos, in partnership with National Heavy Duty Truck Group Company Limited, (SINOTRUK), a Chinese firm as part of its efforts toward boosting foreign exchange and job creation in the country. According to the companies’ Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, the plant which will be located in Ikeja, has the capacity to produce 10,000 trucks annually adding that before now, Dangote had been spending heavily on importing trucks to distribute its products both locally and across African countries. Chiejina said the conglomerate owned 60 per cent stake in the assembly plant while SINOTRUK holds 40 per cent, in a partnership that was formed in 2014. The plant is expected to create 3,000 direct employments when fully operational.
Chiejina said the new company would save Nigeria huge foreign exchange being spent on importation of heavy duty vehicles. According to him, there will be room for project expansion in future as it meets the national truck demand and will explore exportation to neighbouring countries to generate foreign exchange for the nation. He says that Dangote Group Chairman, Aliko Dangote believed that the current economic challenges would make Nigeria stronger if approached positively. The assembly plant is coming ahead of a $17 billion Dangote Refinery, petrochemical and fertiliser plants to be located in Lagos that would have the capacity to produce 650,000 barrels per day when it commences operation. The refinery is expected to begin operations in 2019. The refinery, which is expected to create over 300,000 direct and indirect jobs, would require several haulage trucks for product distribution.
SINOTRUK is a Chinese state-owned truck manufacturer, with its headquarters in Jinan, Shandong Province. It is the largest exporter of trucks in China for 10 consecutive years, securing a sale of 34,000 trucks out of the 176,000 vehicles exported in 2014. It’s revenue from overseas sales amounted to 9 billion yuan ($1.45 billion), accounting for about 13 per cent of the total sales. The company developed strategic technical partnerships with major international brands such as Steyr in Austria and Mann in Germany, all of which helped it penetrate key global markets.