According to the company's managing director, Luís Diogo, the factory, which has been operating since 2010 in the municipality of Viana, in Luanda, began with an initial investment of 9.8 million dollars.
With an installed capacity to produce 12,000 tons per month, and with a production rate of close to 70 percent, the company manufactures steel rod, angles, bars and profiles from scrap iron it acquires from 50 suppliers.
In a press conference, the manager said that in 2020 the industrial unit exported 19,500 tons of the material it produces to African countries in the region, and this year it expects to exceed 25,000 tons.
After entering, weighing, processing, selecting and compacting the scrap, the final product is mainly used for civil construction.
Diogo said that the raw material, scrap iron, is delivered to the company by 50 "duly certified" suppliers, who collect about 400 tons of waste per day throughout the country, and pay 85,000 kwanzas per ton, as opposed to 40,000 kwanzas previously.
For its production process, he explained, Fabrimetal "prohibits" the use of war material, railway tracks and electric cables and/or sewer covers, ensuring that occurrences of this kind are reported to the police authorities.
"Here the supplier is obliged to sign a declaration of commitment, where he assumes the origin of the material that is delivered, but when we verify some prohibited material, as happened, we trigger the police that gives the due treatment," he explained.
Steel mill companies have been considered, in some circles in Angola, as "promoters" of vandalism of public goods, especially electrical cabins and cables, sewer covers, among others, which has been repudiated by the authorities and civil society.
The general manager of the plant, when questioned about the issue, reported that the said material, "usually arrives at the factories in conditions that do not resemble ferrous material.
"And this is an indicator that it is stolen and so we communicate it to the authorities," he said, adding that last February the unit detected "about 60,000 tons of railroad track.
"And then we communicate to the authorities, just as it happened on Monday when we had a load of 10 tons of the same product and the process was similar," he assured.
In relation to revenues in 2020, Luís Diogo pointed out difficulties, "imposed by covid-19", stating that the company "did not stop and exported 19,500 tons even with the lowest sales value".
Fabrimetal raked in about 40 million dollars in 2020.
"[In 2020], we sold about 40,000 tons of steel, we had a reduction of about 25 percent compared to 2019, but this year we intend to resume the same levels of 2019 and we intend to reach about 60,000 tons," he pointed out.
The official also revealed that the industrial unit has invested 2 million dollars in smoke suction as part of environmental impact measures.
The company located in the Viana Industrial Complex, one of the nine municipalities of the capital, has over 500 workers, mostly Angolans and expatriates.
