Africa’s industrial conglomerate, Dangote Group, has sealed a $400 million equipment procurement pact with Chinese manufacturer Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group as part of an aggressive push to scale up its refining capacity toward a projected 1.4 million barrels per day, the company disclosed Tuesday.
The firm said the newly acquired machinery would accelerate ongoing construction spanning its refining, petrochemical, agricultural and infrastructure projects, noting that the equipment would complement its existing fleet already deployed for expansion works. The group expects the refinery scale-up programme to be completed within three years.
According to the company, the expansion drive will significantly raise industrial output across several product lines. Polypropylene capacity is projected to surge from 900,000 tonnes annually to 2.4 million tonnes, while urea production in Nigeria is set to triple to nine million tonnes yearly. Combined with its existing three-million-tonne facility in Ethiopia, the conglomerate said the development would position it as the world’s largest producer of urea fertiliser.
Production of linear alkyl benzene, a key detergent raw material, is also expected to rise to 400,000 tonnes annually, a level the firm said would make it Africa’s biggest supplier. Plans are equally underway to expand base-oil capacity as part of the broader industrial programme.
The company described the agreement as a strategic step aligned with its ambition to grow into a $100 billion enterprise by 2030, stressing that the new equipment would substantially strengthen execution capacity across its projects.
Owned by billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote, the $20 billion Dangote Refinery commenced operations in 2024 after years of construction delays. Analysts say full completion of the facility could sharply cut the country’s reliance on imported refined petroleum products while reshaping fuel supply dynamics across parts of the African region.
