wiredinUSA August 2014

John Mahama

Mr MS Hidayat

West Africa grid

Mr MS Hidayat, industry minister of Indonesia, has launched the construction of a $200 million integrated blast furnace. Construction of the steel mill is being carried out by PT Gunung Gahapi Nisco Indonesia, a joint venture between Indonesian steel maker PT Gunung Gahapi Sakti and China’s Nanjing Iron and Steel Company, on a 40 hectare site. The first phase, at a cost of around $100 million, is expected to be completed next year and the second phase by 2017. Commercial operations will begin in 2015 to produce 500,000 tonnes of concrete reinforcing steel and wire rod a year in its initial phase. Capacity will be upgraded by another 500,000 tonnes in the second phase. Mr Hidayat described the “wise decision” byGahapi andNanjing toproducewire rod and concrete-reinforcing steel to supply local makers of prestressed concrete steel, steel wire ropes, cable stayed, steel cord, nuts and bolts and nails. The enterprise is expected to help improve the quality of domestic wire rod that fails to meet the standards needed to produce wire rod high carbon and alloy steel. Steel mill construction

National electricity companies in West Africa are seeking to establish a reliable power grid for the region. Working in cooperation, the West African Power Pool will establish a plant in Ghana to generate about 450MW of power to selected West African countries. President John Mahama, speaking to the president of Sierra Leone, expressed the hope that the additional power will help to drive economic growth in the area. He noted that West Africa is currently experiencing fast growth, but that energy supply is a major constraint. The president indicated that in his capacity as chairman of the economic community of west African states, his focus will be: “How we can push through the integration of our infrastructure, most especially energy.” He said the plant will “utilize Ghanaian gas from our future gas discoveries to produce 450 megawatts of power.” The generated power will be transmitted through Cote D’Ivoire to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

wiredInUSA - August 2014

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