Roofings Mills Uganda limited has started a new production line worth 23 billion shillings which it expects to boost steel production in Uganda and boost employment.
Sheikh Arif Rashid, the Roofings Limited technical director says the new line has a capacity of producing 6,000 tonnes of steel related products per day.
Rashid says the new tube mill will be used in fabrication of oil drillers, bridges, boats, ships, fuel tanks, electric transmission towers, truck bodies, and dams among others.
With Uganda currently importing about 8,000 tons of steel plates and tubes per month from Kenya and South Africa, the new investment by Roofings will save Uganda money spent on the steel imports.
Each ton of steel imported costs $1,150 ((about 3.4 million shillings) while transporting one ton of steel takes $103 (about 240,000 Uganda shillings). This means Uganda will save more than 250 billion shillings annually spent on importing steel plates.
Lalani Sikandar, the Chairman of Uganda Roofings says the new investment is expected to create about 60 direct new jobs and a number of indirect job opportunities for Ugandans.
He says the company already has a contract to sell galvanized wires to Kenya, with a booking of 600 tons every month up to March, and expects to sell more galvanized steel products in the Great lakes region countries.
The expansions at Roofings were made possible after the company acquired a syndicated loan of $64 million (about147 billion Uganda shillings) from different banks in Uganda.
It is expected that the new investment will enable Roofings Steel Rolling Mills to compete favourably with Uganda Baati, the major steel making company in Uganda that has been the sole maker of galvanized iron and steel products.