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Uganda Construction Materials
In the late 1980s, eight companies produced steel
products in
Uganda, but they were operating at only about 20 percent
of
capacity, despite increased output after 1986. Their most
widely
used products were gardening hoes and galvanized
corrugated
sheets of steel. The production of steel sheets declined
dramatically in 1987, leaving some factories operating at
only 5
percent of capacity. At the same time, hoe production
increased
30 percent over 1986 levels. The government attempted to
rejuvenate the industry in 1987 by assessing the
availability of
scrap iron and the demand for steel products and by
providing
US$2.7 million in machinery and equipment for use by the
government-operated East African Steel Corporation.
The nation's two cement-producing plants at Hoima and
Tororo,
both operated by the Uganda Cement Industry, also reduced
production sharply, from more than 76,000 tons of cement
in 1986
to less than 16,000 tons in 1988. Neither plant operated
at more
than 5 percent of capacity during this time. The
government again
provided funds, roughly US$3.2 million, for rehabilitating
the
industry and initiated a study of ways to improve this
potentially vital sector of the economy.
Data as of December 1990
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