White paper 09 · Annex B
Glossary and abbreviations
Terms are defined as they are used in this paper. Where a term has a formal definition in a statute or in international statistics, the definition here is a plain-language summary.
| Term | Meaning in this paper |
|---|---|
| AfCFTA | African Continental Free Trade Area, established by an agreement signed in 2018; Cameroon ratified in 2020 |
| Apparent steel use | Production plus imports minus exports of finished steel products (worldsteel definition) |
| BEAC | Banque des États de l’Afrique Centrale, the central bank of the six CEMAC states |
| Billet | A semi-finished steel product of square section, cast from liquid steel and rolled into long products (HS 7207) |
| Border price | The price of an imported product at the border: FOB plus freight and insurance (CIF), with or without duty as stated |
| BTP | Bâtiments et travaux publics: buildings and public works, the construction sector in national accounts |
| CBAM | Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism of the European Union, applied to iron and steel imports from 2026 |
| CEMAC | Central African Economic and Monetary Community: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon |
| CET | Common external tariff of the customs union; a harmonised ECCAS-CEMAC tariff applies in Cameroon from 1 January 2026 |
| CFR / CIF | Cost and freight / cost, insurance and freight: price delivered to the destination port, before duty |
| CNPS | Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance Sociale, Cameroon’s national social insurance fund |
| DRI / HBI | Direct reduced iron: iron ore reduced to metal in solid state, usually with natural gas; hot briquetted iron is DRI compacted for transport |
| Duty-paid import parity | The delivered cost of an imported product after freight, insurance, customs duty, levies and port charges, before VAT |
| EAF | Electric arc furnace: melts scrap, DRI or HBI with electric power to make steel |
| ECCAS | Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC in French) |
| Effective rate of protection | Protection given to a producer’s value added by the tariffs on its output and inputs, as opposed to the nominal tariff on its product |
| FOB | Free on board: price at the exporting port, before freight |
| FCFA | Franc of the Financial Cooperation in Central Africa (XAF), pegged at 655.957 per euro |
| Forward / backward linkage | The relationship of an industry with its customers (forward) and its suppliers (backward) |
| HS chapter 72 / 73 | Harmonized System chapters for iron and steel (72) and articles of iron or steel (73) |
| Homologated price | A producer price approved by the Ministry of Commerce for a controlled product |
| Import substitution | Domestic production of goods previously imported, usually supported by trade or industrial policy |
| INS | Institut National de la Statistique, Cameroon’s national statistics institute |
| Iron units | The metallic inputs to steelmaking: scrap, DRI, HBI, pig iron, and the billets made from them |
| Long products | Rebar, wire rod, bars, angles, channels, beams and other sections, as distinct from flat products (sheet and coil) |
| Metallic yield | Tonnes of liquid steel obtained per tonne of metallic charge |
| Mtpa / kt | Million tonnes per annum / thousand tonnes |
| Multiplier (Type I / Type II) | Ratio of total to direct effects; Type I includes supplier effects, Type II also includes effects of household spending of wages |
| Net foreign exchange retained | The value of imports replaced or exports earned, minus the foreign currency spent on imported inputs |
| RC-1 | Cameroon Steel’s reference configuration, edition 10 October 2026, source of planned and indicative project figures, marker [F] |
| Rebar | Reinforcing bar for concrete (HS 7214 and part of 7213) |
| Re-roller | A mill that rolls purchased billets into products without making its own steel |
| SAM | Social accounting matrix: an economy-wide table of transactions used to compute multipliers |
| Scenarios S1, S2, S3 | Iron-unit routes in Chapter 9: imported scrap and HBI (S1); domestic scrap at the RC-1 planning level of 30,000 t a year (range 0 to 60,000), the rest imported (S2); domestic iron units (S3) |
| SND30 | Stratégie Nationale de Développement 2020 to 2030, Cameroon’s national development strategy |
| Value added | Value of output minus intermediate inputs bought from other firms |
| Wire rod | Hot-rolled coiled rod, 5.5 to 12 mm, used for wire drawing, nails, mesh and small rebar (HS 7213) |
Source: Cameroon Steel, drawing on definitions from worldsteel [G05], the Harmonized System, the INS [C09] and the sources cited in the paper.
Sources cited in this chapter
Bracketed markers refer to these sources; the full list is in the annex. Full list of sources
- FCameroon Steel reference configuration RC-1 (planning estimate), edition 10 October 2026 (RC-1.1). Cameroon Steel, 10 Oct 2026.Cited by title and date
- G05World Steel in Figures 2026 (page and PDF). worldsteel, 4 Jun 2026.worldsteel.org/data/world-steel-in-figures/world-steel-in-figures-2026…
- C09Les Comptes Nationaux de 2025. INS Cameroun, Aug 2026 (posted 2 Sep 2026).ins-cameroun.cm/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Comptes_Nationaux_2025_FR_V…
Cite this chapter
Cameroon Steel (2026). Domestic steel saves foreign exchange only when it competes at border prices. White paper 09, annex B: Glossary and abbreviations. CS-WP-09. https://www.cameroon-steel.com/en/library/economics-of-domestic-steel/annex-glossary/
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