WRITTEN BY JACK SLATER

In a country keen to join the international level for production and manufacturing of steel, and once regarded as the industrial heartbeat of Uganda, Jinja could have a new lease of life with the emergence of MM Integrated Steel Uganda Limited, one of the leading manufacturers of steel in the region. In fact Uganda’s first steel coating manufacturing plant is going strength to strength thanks to a £50 million investment into establishing itself in Jinja as a state of the art manufacturing plant. We spoke with CEO Narendra Jain about it all.

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Set to produce 50, 000 metric tons of steel products a year

including iron bars, iron sheets and storage tanks the plant

directly employs 1,800 people and the company has been

earmarked for an additional investment of $600million in the next

five-years which will no doubt further increase the number of

employees.

“The factory is no ordinary establishment. It’s large in all measure.

It consumes 5 mega watts of power at over Shs 210million per month,

tapped from the Madhvani feed to the national greed. The 3 kilometre

line was non-existent so MMI had to connect it. They use Shs10million

worth of water from National Water and Sewerage Corporation

(NWSC) and are currently employing 220 workers,” said Narendra.

The employees have all been brought in from local areas and

training has been made a priority to ensure that every person involved

in the project is functioning at their best. All eyes are on them and

they need to impress.

Rejuvenating The EconomyAmerlia Kyambade, the Minister for Trade, Industry and

Cooperatives, toured the factory earlier this year and acknowledged

the management as heroes for recharging economic activity in the

area and the country as a whole.

“I would like to commend the proprietors of this steel mill for

the contribution towards the economic development of our country

and I hope that we as Ugandans shall gain more in terms of revenue

collection and employment,” said the minister, adding that her

ministry was in plans of drafting policies through the stake holder’s

consultations to help local industries grow.

MM INTEGRATED STEEL MILLS

“This is the first plant of its kind in Uganda,” Narendra tells us, “There are no other plants here doing these processes which gives us an advantageous lead. All other sheet metal providers are importing galvanised and colour coils, but we are able to produce them here, which makes it much more cost effective.”

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Diversification In Tough EconomiesAs a family run business, MMI began its story in Tanzania 17

years ago and while its main focus is steel, the company believes a

diversified approach is best and have set a footing into other industry

sectors including hotels, carbonated drinks, plastics and paints.

The steel business began growing in Africa when they invested

$50 million in a new manufacturing facility in Lusaka, Zambia, which

became operational in 2010. The Ugandan plant followed and by

the end of 2014 another new plant will be established in Nacala,

Mozambique.

Their strategy was to establish facilities in what are essentially

new and ripe markets. So, while the Ugandan business will primarily

sell 60-65% of its products to the domestic market, it is exporting

the rest to the regional countries including Eastern Congo Rwanda,

Burundi in the hoping of establishing connections and trade routes in

the South Sudan markets..

Narendra said, “In terms of the finished product and the quality

we are aiming to be the best in the industry and because we are

producing everything in-house we are able to meet customer’s

specific requirements, whereas in the past they may have had to wait

two or three months for their product to be imported, which was

much more expensive for them,”

Networking, Networking, NetworkingMMI Uganda have already set up a nationwide network of

distributors and dealers as part of their long term strategy.

“The person on the ground is who we are mostly selling our

product to; the local contractor or people who are building their own

houses through our distributors and stockists. Large corporations

aren’t our target market so our distribution chain has grown fast

in the last year,” Narendra explains, “With our network touching on

every corner of the country the people of Uganda have taken to our

products which has boosted our belief that we have made the right

decisions.”

Forward Thinking And OpportunisticForward thinking, despite it not being a part of it’s corporate

policy as is the case in many international businesses, MMI have

taken to make the new factory as state-of-the-art as possible and as

sustainable as possible, “Where ever there are green issues we take

care of them,” Narendra says.

Along with expansion of the steel business, the parent company is

also considering expanding its hotel and other businesses to Uganda

which is proven to be a hotbed for business development and fertile

soil for new investments and ideas.

“Our parent company operates some of the best hotels in Tanzania

and we are looking at that as part of our diversification into Uganda.

We’ve also started building an iron mining plant in conjunction with

the Tanzanian government,” concludes Narendra.

MM INTEGRATED STEEL MILLS

00256 753 773 300

WWW.MMISTEELSUGANDA.COM

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