The market for Nigerian-made cables has received a boost with a recent contract by Nexans Kabelmetal Nigeria Plc to supply electric cables worth N176 million to South-Korea, for use in ship construction.

The vessels, totaling six, were procured by Bonny Gas Transport (BGT), a subsidiary of Nigeria LNG Limited and are worth $1.6 billion. They are being constructed by two ship builders- Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea.

An agreement signed with the ship builders by BGT stated that five per cent of total contract value will be spent procuring suitable Nigerian goods, services and labour in fulfilment of Nigerian content development plan for the project.

Managing Director of Nexans Kabelmetal, Robert Kretschmer, commended the development. “It is significant that a company based in Nigeria is exporting finished industrial goods to a technologically advanced country like South Korea," he said.

“It places a premium on what we do as a company, despite the challenging business environment in Nigeria. I must say that Nexans Kabelmetal has a long standing relationship with NLNG; and for us, this is the beginning of a new level in this relationship. We look forward to this generating other business leads from South-Korea and other countries.”

The new vessels, each with a capacity of 170,000m3, will replace old BGT Ships.

BGT owns 13 of the 23 vessels in Nigeria LNG’s fleet – by far the largest in Nigeria - which deliver liquefied natural gas to customers across the world. The company was established in 1989, to provide shipping capacity for NLNG.

SLIDEwaxie: Even in the electrical world, the Nigeria wire and cable is considered one of the best, if not the best in the world.

talktimi: precisely. I once used to wonder why Nigerian wires/cables were more expensive than their foreign competition and was told by people who deal in those products that Nigerian wires are the best

doncaster: Fresh Air Crew will soon pollute this thread.