Displaying items by tag: Gboko

Nigeria: Nigeria's Dangote Cement re-opened its Gboko cement plant on 31 January 2013. The plant, which represents 20% of Dangote's production in the country due to its 4Mt/yr cement capacity was shut by the company in early December 2012, citing a glut in the market caused by imported cement from Asia.

"Since the shutdown of the Gboko Cement Plant, the government has been engaging local cement manufacturers in discussions and trying to find solutions to the challenges facing the industry," said Dangote in a statement. It added that the decision to re-open followed a meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the firm's chairman Aliko Dangote.

At the end of December 2012, Dangote Cement said that it expected its first quarter pre-tax profit to rise by 39% year-on-year to around US$267.8m. Dangote has expanded aggressively in recent years, supplying a construction boom in Africa's second-biggest economy and most populous nation. It plans to grow its Nigerian production to 29Mt/yr by 2015 and is also building cement plants across Africa, although cheap imports from Asia are seen as a threat to margins.

Nigeria: A disagreement between two workers at the Dangote Benue Cement factory in Gboko, Benue State escalated into a full-scale blood-bath on 17 August 2011, leading to reports of 20 deaths and the destruction of 154 trucks and 60 cars belonging to the company. Gboko itself has become a 'ghost town' after residents fled the town.

The violence started following a simple disagreement at a snack stand between two co-workers, a truck driver, named locally as Suleiman and the operator of the snack stand reported to be a Miss Kwaghkure. Apparently an agreement for Suleiman to be granted credit turned sour when he became unable to pay his debt and slapped Kwaghkure. This prompted an escalation in violence between those supporting the two parties and soon spread into full-scale looting of the plant, halting production.

Violence spread to the nearby town, where banks came under attack and the carnage even spilled out onto the local highway where innocent commuters were robbed. It is not known whether Suleiman or Kwaghkure are among the dead.

The plant's general manager (finance), Mike Etu, ruled out a tribal or religious dispute, saying it was purely driven by the interests of those involved. He lamented that although Dangote had been operating with the interest of the host community at heart, it had been under constant threat from cement looters. He expressed severe regret over the events and gave condolences for the dead and those affected by the incident.Dangote had previously ramped-up its security arrangements at the plant following smaller disputes.