Romco Group plans expansions this year

London-based Romco Group, which has operations in Nigeria and other African nations, says it has planned its “most ambitious capex program to date” for this year as it builds on what it calls record sales in 2021.

In a seven-page quarterly report released in late March, Romco calls 2021 a “stellar year of growth” in which it recycled some 18,000 metric tons of aluminum while bringing in revenue of $29.4 million.

“With global supply declining and demand increasing, there is an urgent need to ramp up the recycling of existing metals in the supply chain,” states Romco CEO Raymond Onovwigun. “Demand for aluminum is expected to grow by 80 percent by 2050,” he adds.

Regarding 2021 investments, Onovwigun says Romco switched to using compressed natural gas (CNG) to power “all our furnaces in Nigeria” and focused on building “new trade hubs across Sub-Sahara Africa, and we have strengthened feedstock lines by growing our Small Business Buying Program by 300 percent.”

In terms of its investments this year, a further expansion of that scrap collection network is one priority, the company says. Romco also plans to upgrade its truck fleet to service its collection network and to begin building a new melt shop and recycling facility “on the east coast of Africa.”

The African metals producer also says it is planning to achieve “Performance Standard” certification from the Australia-based Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI). It also says it “will engage” the London Metal Exchange (LME) “with respect to listing our materials, potentially enabling our goods for direct trade to the LME exchange, increasing liquidity of alloy stock.”

The firm states, “Romco would be the first company to list on the LME as an aluminum alloy producer in over four years.”

In its most recent report, Romco says the tense grade of aluminum scrap (mixed castings) represented more than 80 percent of the scrap it melted in its furnaces last year.

Romco has what it calls a “fully functional” alloys production plant in Nigeria, with Ghana identified as the site of its second such plant.