Africa-Press – Angola. A train from Caminhos de Ferro de Moçâmedes (CFM) with 867 tons of pig iron, produced in Cuando Cubango, left this Saturday morning for the commercial port of Namibe, in order to be exported to the main international markets, with emphasis on for the United States of America, Europe and Asia.
This is the first transport of pig iron ingots in the history of Companhia Siderúrgica do Cuchi (CSC) in Angola, a project that will boost the sustainable development of the diversification of the country’s economy, in particular in the province of Cuando Cubango.
The general director of production at the company, Wilton dos Reis Oliveiras, assured that 864 tonnes of pig iron were produced in the experimental phase, which started at the beginning of May this year.
He said that up until now, 960 furnaces have been built to support the manufacture of iron, each with a capacity to produce more than five thousand and five hundred cubic meters of charcoal per week.
He referred that this initial process oscillates between 150 and 200 tons/day, until reaching the maximum, set at 300 tons/day.
So far, more than 50 million US dollars have been invested in the construction of the factory, exploitation of the raw iron mine, movement of the railway line, among other investments.
Deployed in an area of more than two thousand hectares, the company created, in a first phase, 1,200 direct and indirect jobs, of the more than 5,000 direct ones planned until the final phase.
It is the second largest industry of its kind in the world, after Brazil, as well as being the second country in the manufacture of pig iron using renewable energy. Russia and Ukraine are other countries that manufacture, but using fossil fuel.
Currently, a ton of this ore is quoted on the international market between US$300 and US$400.
With pig iron in liquid form, he detailed, Angola will carry out the smelting, the transformation into steel and with by-products contribute to the sowing industry, soil correction and fertilizer, for agricultural activity, as nothing from the industry will be wasted.
He assured that the increase in employability, especially youth, will take place with the construction of two blast furnaces and the increase in production itself, which is based on the sufficient mineral reserve of more than 50 years, at a time when the reforestation process has already had start within the CSC.
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