Description

Interlocking concrete pavements are a special dry mix pre-cast piece of concrete commonly used in exterior landscaping pavement applications. Concrete paving stones can be used for walkways, patios, pool decks and driveways and airport or loading docks.

Interlocking concrete pavers are now available throughout Nigeria in more than 25 different shapes and sizes. With the addition of pigment for colored units, numerous pavement patterns can be achieved, making interlocking concrete pavements aesthetically pleasing as well as durable. The equipment and methods for producing pavers are unique.

Specific proportions of any mixture used for concrete pavers will depend on locally available materials, manufacturing equipment requirements, and the desired final texture and quality of the paving unit.
Standard thicknesses are 60 mm (for light traffic) and 80 mm (heavy traffic).
The different shapes and designs of paving block and kerbs are shown below.

The raw materials required for production would be locally sourced and they include crushed stone, sand, cement, granite though other materials like dust, coal fly ash and other industrial wastes can be used.

The market for paving blocks is, at present, a growing one. One of the main reasons for the growth of this very specialized market would seem to be the worldwide tendency for beautification of cities, parks and gardens. This requires a modern concrete paving product, which is quick and easy to lay, and besides being esthetically pleasing, has the advantage of excellent performance under traffic.

Because of its greater acceptance, not only for roads, driveways and parking areas, but also for other applications such as airports, harbours and mines, it is expected that this market will continue to grow.

One area which promises the greatest potential is the paving of township roads as part of the employment creation programme. Concrete block paving provides an attractive, long lasting maintenance free road.

In Nigeria, the paving block market can be divided into the residential and the commercial/ industrial segment. The residential segment deals with driveways and parking areas. The standard thickness of the blocks used in this market segment is 60 mm and seems to be confined to highbrow areas like Lekki, VI, Ikoyi, Ikeja while the commercial/ industrial segment handles the use of paving blocks in public structures like roads, airports, seaports etc. The standard thickness of the blocks used in this market segment is 80 mm due to the heavy traffic expected.

Operators in the paving block industry in Nigeria can be classified into two groups namely big and small. Small operators usually adopt the Wet Cast technology (also referred to as “Open Moulded”) while the big operators adopt the Hydraulically Pressed technology.

Due to market size and high start-up cost, limited numbers of large scale paving block companies currently operates in the country and we hope to exploit this opportunity.

Some of the companies operating in Lagos state are H.F.P Engineering (Nig) Limited, BankSome, Lar-Polonia, Daltrade/DCC Ventures etc

This report seeks to confirm the financial viability or otherwise of establishing an interlocking paving block production plant in Nigeria capable of producing various bricks/blocks including color-face bricks (layered material feeding), through-body tiles lock linkage blocks, road curb bricks, hydraulic blocks, hollow blocks, perforated bricks, and staperforated bricks, and standard bricks.

The plant would operate for eight {8} hours per day producing 50,000 pc of 200*100*60 size paving block weighing 2.3 kg each and working for 300 days per annum.

The repayment plan of five {5} years with moratorium period of twelve {12} months. The assumed interest rate for the loan is 25% while tax is at 32%.