The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has stated that the steel industry in the country is capable of creating about 40,000 jobs if fully developed.

The minister, while at a facility tour of Premium Steel and Mines Limited, Warri Delta State, yesterday, explained that the mandate of the ministry is to expand the sector, use it to diversify the economy and create more jobs to reduce poverty the rate in the country.

Adegbite encouraged the management of Premium Steel and Mines Limited to get the company running at full capacity, noting that the ministry had the mandate to diversify the economy and create jobs through the sector.

“The mandate of the ministry is to expand the sector, use it to diversify the economy and create jobs and also to generate revenue for the government. I will encourage you to speed up the process. You are going to employ a lot of people which is a welcome development”, he said.

Adegbite also said that it was important for the nation’s steel sector to produce flat steel sheet. He noted that such was vital for the development of the sector.

“For the nation to industrialise, we need to produce a flat sheet, which is the ultimate goal of the sector. With flat sheet we can produce many things like engine blocks, vehicle bodies, etc”, he said.

Adegbite also rallied the steel producer to support the metallurgical Industry bill.

The minister noted that the bill when enacted into law would assist in establishing programmes that would aid the private sector to operate optimally, producing competitive high-quality products for both the local and international market.

“Government is willing to do everything to support the industry. That’s why we have proposed a metallurgical industrial Bill, which is at the council for approval. When it is approved it will support the industry. It will make it a lot easier for you to operate. We would have been empowered by the law to support you. The support we give will have the backing of the law.”

The Group Chief Executive Officer of Premium Steel and Mines Limited, Anand Badjatya, said that the management of the company was working towards fully reviving the company.

He said that the company would save the nation more than a million tons of steel in import and conserve about 600 million dollars in foreign exchange when working at full capacity.

According to him, “We aim to save the nation about 600 million dollars from import substitution.”

It would be recalled that Premium Steel was formerly called Delta Steel Company before it was privatised was designed to produce 1.2 million tonnes of liquid steel per annum to be cast into 960,000 metric tonnes of billets and rolled 330,000 metric tonnes in its Rolling Mill.

The remaining 630,000 metric tonnes were to feed the three inland Rolling Mills at Jos, Oshogbo and Katsina, who have 210,000 metric tonnes capacity Rolling Mills each.