(Yicai) Sept. 2 -- Shares in Hangxiao Steel Structure surged nearly 5 percent today after the leading Chinese supplier of steel structural components said it has won a USD166 million deal to supply core‑process equipment and related services for an expansion project at a Nigerian oil refinery that, once completed, would become the world’s largest single-site refinery.

Hangxiao Steel’s share price [SHA: 600477] climbed 1.6 percent to end the day at CNY2.55 (USD0.38). Earlier in the day it hit CNY2.66. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed down 1 percent.

Hangxiao Steel will provide design and manufacturing services for core-process equipment as well as supply key materials and related services for an expansion project at a refinery operated by Nigerian conglomerate Dangote Group, the Hangzhou-based firm said yesterday. The contract has a term of 30 months.

The contract value is equivalent to 15.8 percent of Hangxiao Steel’s audited operating revenue for 2025, it said. No other details of the contract signed with Dangote’s project subsidiary were disclosed.

The deal marks Hangxiao Steel’s second major cooperation with Lagos-based Dangote. In September 2016, the two sides inked a USD112 million supply contract under which Hangxiao Steel would provide detailed engineering design, manufacturing and supply of steel structural components for Dangote’s refinery and polypropylene complex within Nigeria’s Lekki Free Trade Zone.

Hangxiao Steel did not specify whether the current project involves an expansion of the facilities covered by the 2016 contract. An April report by the petroleum industry publication Oil & Gas Journal said Dangote was planning to expand its Lekki plant, raising crude‑oil refining capacity from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028 while also increasing output of related chemical products.

Hangxiao Steel provides structural components for large‑scale buildings and industrial facilities. According to its website, apart from Dangote’s Lekki complex, its overseas chemical‑sector clients also include Saudi Arabia’s InoChem’s soda‑ash and calcium‑chloride project and a coking project at a Petrobras refinery in Rio de Janeiro.

Dangote’s refinery and polypropylene plant in the Lekki Free Trade Zone is already Africa’s largest refinery and the world’s biggest single‑train refinery. The planned expansion would make the complex the world’s largest single‑site refinery.

Editor: Kim Taylor