Chinese firm to buy steel worth Sh300m locally

The China Road and Bridge Corporation has announced it is in the process of buying steel worth Sh330 million from Kenyan manufacturers for the standard gauge railway project.

In a statement released on Monday, the company said the move to buy of over 5 million kilogrammes of steel would be the first large scale local purchase of the materials since construction of the project began.

The firm had previously purchased smaller consignments from different Kenyan steel makers.

CRBC said the 5,250 tonnes (5,250,000kg) of steel bars are expected to meet the requirements for the construction of culverts and bridge foundations for about three months.

Five steel manufacturers on Friday presented their bids to supply the bars at the CRBC offices in Nairobi. The firm will select one or more suppliers from their prequalified list.

James Chen, the firm's business manager at the Department for External Relations and Cooperation, said the products from the suppliers had been tested. "They have met the requirements for the project," he said.

“We have tested the steel suppliers’ steel products that are participating in this process in our SGR Project center lab and they have met the requirements for the project,” said James Chen CRBC Business manager of Department for external relation and cooperation for the SGR project.

CRBC will now evaluate the quotations and will select a suitable supplier based on the stability of their production capacity, good sales performance, excellent quality control and lower price variations.

“After this meeting, CRBC will evaluate the tenderer's business, service ability, quality provence and price stated in the bidding document. Eventually, one or several suppliers will be awarded the tender,” said Mr Chen.

The companies that presented their bids are Apex Steel Mill Corporation, Steel Makers Limited, Devki Steel Mills, Prime Steel Limited and Tononoka Steel.