Iron ore export and steel production

Africa provides about 7.5% of world iron ore output but its relative share of steel production is almost nil. Steel output in Africa amounts to some three million tons (excluding South Africa, which produces six to seven million tons) while the world output oscillates around 700 million tons. Steel production in Africa is concentrated in a few countries in the north and south of the continent. Elsewhere, we find only small electric furnaces fed with scrap which produce reinforcing bars for the construction industry. The main iron ore producing countries, Liberia and Mauritania, have no processing facilities, while the big investment projects are located in Algeria and Nigeria and although their implementation has begun they have suffered many delays. Other, less important, projects which have been considered in Liberia, Mauritania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Zambia and Kenya have simply been abandoned. The US steel enterprises in Liberia considered building a steel plant of 150,000 tons for export to the neighbouring countries, but, like its predecessor of the 1960s, this project has not been carried out.

Unlike copper and aluminium, the consumption of steel in Africa is currently much greater than its production. African steel consumption (South Africa excluded) is about eight million tons, mainly covered by imports. The development of local processing in the iron ore producing countries would, therefore, imply the substitution of steel exports for iron ore exports for these countries, but not necessarily for the continent as a whole.