Cementing the right foundations

Ren said his company has a long history of collaboration with BUA Group, a Nigerian business giant. In addition, it has also teamed up with French industrial giant Lafarge SA on many projects in various regions. Lafarge has also become one of the major global strategic partners for the Chinese company.

Ren said the collaborations include the cement plant set up in 2010 in Nigeria's Ogun state in 2010 with daily production capacity of 5,000 tons. "We were the engineering, procurement and construction contractors and built that factory according to Lafarge's requirements."

According to the African Development Bank, Nigeria is a regional leader in terms of infrastructure power and the network covers the national territory quite extensively.

However, with the boom in infrastructure projects across the country, heavy equipment and cement supplies have been under strain. CBMI regards this as an opportunity to establish its business in the region and help ease the pressure.

Annual cement demand in Nigeria was estimated to be about 10 million tons in 2004, according to data published by the economic consular office of China in Nigeria. However, the actual production capacity was just 3 million tons. By the end of last year, the country's annual production exceeded 28 million tons and the capacity is still growing.

However, for Sinoma, localization and real skill transfer have been the top priority in Africa. Ren said if local employees can fully manage the company affairs after professional training, it would lead to huge cost savings and boost efficiency.

Sinoma has already reaped the benefits of such a strategy in Saudi Arabia, he said.

He said African markets now need more jobs, especially in a populous country like Nigeria. So CBMI has a good chance to bring more jobs and professionalism to local employees by collaborating with local and international partners.

According to Ren, the company is focusing on factory construction in installments and providing one-year after-sales service on all its completed projects, including spare parts for machinery and operational management guidance. The company is also trying to be involved in permanent operational management as they believe the manufacturer of the equipment is the best judge for maximizing productivity.

"But we are not stepping into mine operations or actual cement sales," he said.