Billionaire, Sikander Lalani’s Roofings Group, yesterday, 4th October 2023 kickstarted the construction of its phase 4 expansion phase⏤ a 150,000 tonnes-a-year cold rolling plant at the Kampala Industrial Business Park (KIBP) in Namanve, on the outskirts of Kampala City.
This is the fourth expansion phase after the company established its first USD 2 million investment into an iron sheets plant in Lubowa. This was in 2010, expanded to include a combined 130,000 tonnes-a-year wire galvanizing plant and melt shop, and shortly in 2012 by a plastic pipes plant under the Roofings Polypipes subsidiary also at Lubowa. In the third expansion phase, the steel group invested in a 150,000 tonnes per year cold rolling mill. By the end of the third phase, the company said it had invested more than USD350 million in Uganda and employed more than 2000 people.
The cost of the fourth expansion phase is not yet public knowledge.
Construction works are being undertaken by China Communications Construction Company Ltd while the architects for the project are Space and Places Ltd. Roman Consult Ltd are the project civil/structural engineers, while Construction Cost Associates are the Quantity surveyors. L&S Company Ltd are the electrical and mechanical engineers.
In December 2022, Roofings entered into a contract with Danieli Group, an Italian supplier of equipment and physical plants to the metal industry to supply a cold-rolling mill, hot-dip galvanising, colour-coating and side-trimming line. The line is to be ready mid-2024 according to an earlier release by the Danieli Group, in time for installation.
The contract was signed by Sikander Lalani, the Roofings Group Chairman and Founder and Giacomo Mareschi, the Danieli Group Chief Executive Officer.
Moody's Ratings downgrades Uganda's ratings to B3 from B2; upgrades outlook to stableThe investment will allow Roofings to produce an additional 100,000 tonnes per year of galvanized coils and 50,000 tonnes per year of painted coils, “efficiently and ecologically”, the Danieli Group said.
Danieli will supply the complete mechanical, hydraulic, electrical and automation equipment.
“The single-stand cold-reversing mill will be equipped with heavy-duty positive/negative bending and ultrafast HAGC control to obtain impressive thickness tolerances. Advanced automation will allow superior performances in terms of product quality and productivity, consistently. The hot-dip galvanising line will feature a Danieli Kohler X-jet gas wiping system ensuring coating with excellent uniformity at 160 m/min,” the Danieli Group press release said.
“The high-production, colour-coating line will feature Danieli Fata Hunter chemical and paint coaters and catenary-type prime and finish ovens, which will deliver the requested high-quality coating and visual results. Danieli Automation will provide full electric and automation systems including Level 1, making use of the powerful IPC-based HiPAC platform, and Level 2 to handle plant process setup and reporting functionalities.
The same modular automation architecture applied to the new mill and lines will ease the management by maintenance engineers and plant operators for production and maintenance,” added Danieli in their December 2022 statement.