Dangote invests in $100m truck factory in Lagos

Africa’s richest man and billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote has entered into an automobile business deal with a total investment of $100 million on truck assembly which is 65 per cent owned by Dangote and 35 per cent by Sinotruk.

The truck manufacturing company known as Dangote Sinotruk West Africa Ltd, located in Lagos will assemble and produce full range of commercial vehicles covering heavy duty truck, medium truck, light truck and other semi-trailers amongst others.

Speaking during a facility tour of the Dangote truck factory located along Oba Akran Avenue in Ikeja, Group General Manager, Dangote Projects, Hikmat Thapa said that the coming together of Dangote and Sinotruk to build the truck factory aims to meet an expected increased demand for logistics, construction and other industries in the country as the government focuses on boosting the economic development across the vast country.

According to Thapa, the company will assemble and produce 10,000 trucks annually while the truck assembly plant will create 3000 job vacancies for Nigeria.

While assuring that Dangote Sinotruk had the capacity to assemble and produce 16 trucks a day and would export to West Africa, the GM added “We want to play our respective advantages to develop heavy-duty truck industry in Nigeria; provide new employment opportunities, improve local automobile technology, equipment and technology level, promote the economic development in Nigeria and Form a production base for heavy-duty trucks and commercial vehicles in West Africa.

Thapa further assured that, with the formation of the production base, not only the market demands in Nigeria can be met, but also the requirements of covering the neighboring countries will be gradually met, adding that they would “make contributions to build friendly relationships between China and Nigeria”.

Currently, the factory produces about 4 to 5 units of trucks per day but Thapa informed that when the whole production processes are completed, they factory has a capacity of 10,000 trucks per annum while 30 trucks are expected to be churned out on daily basis.

“Our current plan is 200 people; the next step will be 400 people; finally, we will employ 1500 people while there will be 3,000 supporting employments”, Thapa said.

The GM who said they have planned three steps of development noted that those steps include: KD Assembling; a phase where they produce and sell the heavy-duty truck which features favorable price, guaranteed quality and long service life, and provide systematic and professional after-sales service and adequate accessories.

The other step is commercial production when the company would transfer the second-hand heavy-duty truck market into the brand new vehicle market in Nigeria. The final and third stage according to him involves a regional commercial vehicle production base, a phase when Dangote Sinotruk would equally promote the development of the local auto industry, especially the heavy-duty truck industry.

Also speaking at the facility was the Project Manager of Dangote Group, Mr. Tijani Momodu who assured that by first quarter of 2018, the truck factory must have taken a complete shape with full scale production.

“By early next year, the cabin line will take off. The full production will take off early next year that is the first quarter of 2018. Right now; by May this year, we will take start the cabin line as all paper works have been done. Hopefully, by February next year, we would have been through and start rolling out the cabin which of course is key to our production line. Once we have that, we are talking about full CKD”, Momodu said.

Momodu who narrated the complete process of vehicle manufacturing in the factory took the auto journalists through their production line including turning over machine, filling machine, inspection line, debugging workshops to finished products. Other facilities he showed the media are logistics area, workshop, training centre amongst other facilities.

Dangote Industries Limited, the Largest Manufacturing Conglomerate in West Africa established in May, 1981 with the products covering cement, fertilizer, sugar, flour, salt, pasta and drinks, while it also provides services in petroleum, natural gas, automobile, communications and steel and iron.

Established in 1960, Sinotruk is the cradle of China’s heavy-duty truck, and the largest production and export base for heavy-duty truck in China. Sinotruk (Hong Kong) Limited, a publicly traded company in HKSE main board in 2007. With more than 48,000 employees, Sinotruk manufactures heavy duty truck, medium truck, light truck, bus, other special purpose trucks and military trucks.