AJAOKUTA POWER PLANT MOU CEREMONY

Published：2014-05-06

1. The ceremony Briefing

We and our local partner, 3D Hitech Systems Ltd., signed the MOU with Ajaokuta Steel Company Ltd (ASCL) for the repair, maintenance, operation and management of its 110MW thermal power plant on May 2nd 2014.

This Thermal Power Plant is a captive gas fired power plant of 110 MW, which was built in 1982 by the USSR. It generates power for both the operation of the Steel Plant and the National Grid. The steel plant consumes 20%, while the balance of 80% is exported to the national grid.

However, it shut down totally in 2007 because of poor management and short of maintenance. Now the Honorable Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Musa Muhammad Sada invites our company and our local partner 3D Hitech Systems Ltd. to upgrade this power plant, which is part of the Nations Industrial Revolution Plan which launched by Mr. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

The Ajaokuta Steel Plant industry area reaches to 2400 hectares, which is the second biggest in the world after Russia, while the power plant reaches 800 hectares. The steel plant was envisaged to be developed in three phases. The First phase is to produce 1.3 million tones steel per annum with an in-built capacity for expansion to 2.6 million tones per annum in the second stage and 5.2 million tones per annum in the third.

The construction and erection works on the first phase of the Steel Plant began in 1979. By 1994, the works were reckoned to be at 98% completion in terms of equipment erected. Ajaokuta Steel Plant is therefore aptly tagged as the “Bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialization”.

In this project, the Ukraine engineer group (the formal Contractor) and our Chinese engineers will be working together to complete the maintenance and commissioning. According to the plan, the First Phase of the project can reach up to the generation of 100MW, while The Second Phase of the project can reach 600MW.

2. Inspection of Ajaokuta Power Plant

The square in front of the Administration and Welfare

Building of ASCL The turbine house

The natural gas tanks outside the turbine house

Mr. Charles Liu in the turbine house

The pipes inside the turbine house

The internal situation of the turbine house

The Generator No.1 of 55MW capacity. The Generator No.2 of 55MW capacity

The Control room

Mr. Charles Liu in the Control room

The boiler house

The tag on the air tank

Gas supplying pipelines

The outside of the turbine house

Charles Liu, ED of the group company. & the Sole Administrator of ASCL &

The Managing Director of 3D-Hitech Systems Ltd, Mr Patrick Azi with other staffs

3. Inspection of Ajaokuta Steel Plant

The Ajaokuta Iron & Steel Plant is based on the conventional Blast Furnace – Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF-BOF) production process with a capacity of 1.3 million tons/year of long products, using the local iron ore, and imported coking coal.

The blast furnace process makes it possible for ASCL to use local iron ore, limestone and dolomite, whose deposits are all by an act of providence located within less than 100km from the steel plant. This fact is one of the techno-economic factors that justified the location of the plant. The development of the various mines and infrastructural facilities to supply these raw materials to the plant adds a further vertical integration. Furthermore, the use of a Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) minimizes the demand load on the National Electric Power grid, in contrast to the Electric Arc Furnace practices.

The Ajaokuta integrated steel complex was conceived and steadily developed with the vision of erecting a Metallurgical Process Plant cum Engineering Complex with other auxiliaries and facilities. The complex is meant to be used to generate important upstream and downstream industrial and economic activities that are critical to the diversification of our economy into an industrial one. Ajaokuta Steel Plant is therefore aptly tagged as the “Bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialization”.

The project would directly employ about 10,000 staff at the first phase of commissioning; the upstream and downstream industries that will evolve all over the nation will engage not less than 500,000 employees. The plant was designed to produce 1.3 million tones of liquid steel per annum in phase one, with the plan to increase this capacity to 2.6 million tones in phase 2 and 5.2 million tones in phase 3 in a mode of continuous expansion. The plant also has the capability to produce long and flat products, rails, with the final phase intended to include various types of finished and semi-finished steel products, including heavy plates and sections.