MRM pg 1-5.pdf - Mabati Rolling Mills

ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS
By Antony Kung'u
Background
A special trade relationship has existed between the European Union
(EU) and African Caribbean and Pacific group (ACP) of countries since
1975 when the first Lome Convention was signed. Under the Lome
Conventions, the ACP countries enjoyed unilateral trade preferences
into the EU market. The Fourth Lome Convention was replaced by
the Cotonou Agreement in 2000, which extends the unilateral trade
preferences up to December 2007. Thereafter, the parties are dutybound
to negotiate and conclude World Trade Organisation (WTO)
compatible reciprocal trade agreements, the Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPAs), at the beginning of 2008.
The EPAs are touted as the new co-operative framework under the
Cotonou Agreement and are expected to adopt an integrated approach
based on partnership and promoting co-operation, multilateral trade
and political dialogue between the EU and the ACP countries. The key
features of EPAs are their reciprocity and non-discriminatory nature.
They involve the removal of all trade preferences which have been
established between the EU and the ACP countries since 1975 as well
as the progressive removal of trade barriers between the partners. The
EPAs are open to all developing countries thereby effectively bringing
down the curtain on the ACP group as the main development partner
of the EU.
Regional Blocs
Previously, the EU negotiated with all ACP countries as a bloc. However,
for EPAs’ negotiations, the EU has split the ACP countries into trading
blocs, arguably undermining their solidarity, negotiating power and
political power thus weakening their overall bargaining power. The
ACP countries have formed six regional configurations or groupings
through which to negotiate EPAs with the EU, some of which arethe
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the Eastern
and Southern Africa group (ESA), the Caribbean Community and the
Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS). Kenya belongs to the
ESA configuration.
Effects of EPAs on ACP Countries
Although the EPAs are aimed at supporting the on-going processes
of economic integration and gradual liberalisation of trade between
ACP countries and the EU, some very legitimate concerns have been
raised on their effects on the ACP countries. The EU has chosen to
negotiate the agreements under strict WTO rules that govern reciprocal
free trade agreements (FTAs), requiring ACP countries to open their
markets to "substantially all" EU imports over a limited period of time.
The 10-year period given by EU to ACP countries to open their markets
to substantially all trade is not adequate for the latter to develop their
productive capacities and strengthen their competitiveness prior to
the potential influx of EU products into the ACP markets. Inequalities
resulting from the different levels of development between the EU
and ACP countries make reciprocity untenable. The ACP countries also
face a gargantuan task in their zeal to break into EU markets already
dominated by long established, well loved and highly patronised
European brands. Local producers lacking distinctive capabilities will
not survive the potential onslaught to be waged by cheap imports
from the EU. Furthermore, the EU is bound to apply stringent rules of
origin (ROO) on imports from ACP countries, thus introducing technical
barriers to market access.
MABATINEWS
Profiling lines at CGL Mariakani
By Gabriel Olukwo
As part of its modernization and
equipment upgrading program in line
with the developments in technology,
MRM has installed and commissioned three
profiling lines at the finishing department of
the Continuous Galvanizing Line at Mariakani.
Profiler 1 was commissioned in July 2004,
while profilers 2 and 3 were commissioned
in October 2006. These lines have replaced
shearing lines and barrel corrugators. The
profiling lines produce galvanized and
aluminium-zinc coated corrugated standard
profile sheets. These profiling lines and
their layout are in line with Gemba Kaizen
principles of lean manufacturing. Material
and crane movement have been greatly
reduced. Three processes have been
combined into one. The order execution time
has been reduced and the products from
these lines do not have any variations. The
profiling lines are far much superior to barrel
corrugators in many ways. A higher range of
materials can be processed on profilers. They
can accommodate 0.20mm to 0.30mm thick
material with minimum adjustments. Sheets
of various lengths are produced ranging from
a few centimetres to over 10 metres length
to meet customer requirement. The
profiling lines also produce sheets with
uniform profiles. These profilers are highly
automated with minimal setting time and
once correct settings have been achieved, the
profilers run automatically producing scratch
free sheets. Since profiling lines combine
three processes, (shearing, handling and
corrugation), rejections are fewer and orders
can be executed exactly as per requirements.
Profiling lines occupy less space and do not
require storage for cut plain sheets. Each
Profiling line is manned by only five persons
compared to 11 persons in barrel corrugators
(three at shearing and eight at corrugator).
Production cost of profiling lines is lower than
that of lines with barrel corrugators because
less manpower is utilised and less power is
consumed. The profiling lines have a very
high safety level as the operation position
is far from moving parts and there is no
manual feeding of sheets into the profiler. The
operation is thus less tiresome resulting to
decreased human errors as a result of fatigue.
The noise levels at profiling lines are very low
hence operators are not required to wear ear
plugs or muffs.
Conversely, barrel corrugators
process only one gauge and a
maximum sheet length of 3.7 metres. As
the production process entails shearing,
transfers and finally corrugation the rejection
level is high because of the independent
multiple processes involved. Continuous
manual feeding leads to over dependency on
humans. These lines are prone to accidents
because of multiple handling of products,
operation is near to moving parts and their
inherent prolonged human fatigue. Lines
with barrel corrugators occupy a lot of floor
to accommodate the shearing lines, extra
storage space for work in process plain sheets
and the barrel corrugators. The noise levels at
barrel corrugators are high and the operators
must wear ear plugs or muffs for hearing
protection.
M A B A T I N E W S 15