喀麦隆进口的是含铁原料和板材，而不是钢筋

4.1 Volumes have more than doubled while unit values have fallen

The national statistics institute (INS) publishes annual foreign-trade notes based on customs data. They show chapter 72 imports of 182,890 t in 2019, 278,981 t in 2020, 297,633 t in 2021, 283,589 t in 2022, 304,062 t in 2023, 309,682 t in 2024 and, on provisional data, 412,049 t in 2025 [S19][S114][S115][S107][S07]. The 2025 increase, 33% in one year, is the largest in the series.

Source: INS, notes on foreign trade 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 (provisional) [S19][S114][S115][S107][S07]. Unit values derived as value divided by tonnage.

Values moved differently. Chapter 72 imports cost 93.0 bn FCFA in 2019, peaked at 222.1 bn FCFA in 2022, fell to 137.2 bn FCFA in 2024 and rose to 170.1 bn FCFA in 2025 [S19][S07]. The implied average value per kilogram rose from 509 FCFA in 2019 to 783 FCFA in 2022, during the post-pandemic price spike, and then fell to 443 FCFA in 2024 and 413 FCFA in 2025, about €629 per tonne (derived). Falling unit values with rising tonnage point to two effects: lower world prices for semis and flat steel after 2022 (Chapter 8), and a shift in the mix towards cheaper semi-finished steel.

Chapter 73, which covers fabricated articles such as structures, tubes, tanks, fasteners and wire products, was steadier: 72,253 t in 2019 and 84,008 t in 2025, at values between 74.3 bn FCFA and 116.6 bn FCFA [S19][S07]. Including all base metals and their articles, Cameroon imported 554,638 t worth 420.2 bn FCFA in 2025, up from 429,202 t and 309.6 bn FCFA in 2024 [S07]. Chapters 72 and 73 together, 278.1 bn FCFA, represented 5.3% of Cameroon’s total imports of 5,229.2 bn FCFA in 2025 (derived) [S07].

4.2 The 2025 jump: more tonnes, lower prices

The provisional 2025 data deserve particular attention because they show the largest annual increase in the series. Chapter 72 tonnage rose by 102,367 t, or 33%, while value rose by 32.9 bn FCFA, or 24% (derived) [S107][S07]. The average value per kilogram therefore fell again, from 443 FCFA to 413 FCFA. Without product detail for 2025, it is not possible to say with certainty which products drove the rise. Three explanations are consistent with the evidence. Billet imports may have grown as domestic rolling capacity expanded and scrap became scarcer, which is what industry statements suggest [S01][S116]. Imports of flat steel may have grown with construction and roofing demand. And lower world prices may have encouraged stock-building by importers and mills. The first explanation is the most likely to be significant, given that billets were already the largest line in 2023, but it cannot be confirmed until product data for 2025 are published (Chapter 11).

The 2025 increase also coincided with a rise in total imports. Cameroon’s imports of all goods rose 4.6% to 5,229.2 bn FCFA in 2025, and the merchandise trade deficit widened by 22.8% to 2,145.2 bn FCFA [S07]. Iron and steel therefore grew faster than imports as a whole. Imports of all base metals and their articles, a wider category that includes aluminium and other metals, rose from 429,202 t to 554,638 t [S07].

4.3 The product mix: billets first, flat steel second, bars last

The INS notes do not break chapter 72 down by product. For that, this paper uses the United Nations Comtrade database, to which Cameroon had reported detailed data up to 2023 at the research cut-off [S05]. Comtrade values are in US dollars and do not match the INS totals exactly, because of differences in valuation, timing and coverage, but the product structure is clear.

Source: UN Comtrade, Cameroon imports by HS heading, 2023 [S05]. "Other chapter 72" is the residual of the chapter total; shares derived.

Chapter 72 imports were worth US$310.4m in 2023 [S05]. Billets and semis (HS 7207) accounted for US$151.7m, cold-rolled flat products (HS 7209) for US$52.0m, coated flat products (HS 7210) for US$32.2m, sections (HS 7216) for US$26.3m and hot-rolled flat products (HS 7208) for US$18.3m [S05]. Wire rod (HS 7213), wire (HS 7217) and bars and reinforcing bar (HS 7214) together accounted for US$16.5m. In chapter 73, structures and parts of structures (HS 7308) cost US$58.0m, welded tubes (HS 7306) US$26.0m and seamless tubes (HS 7304) US$14.6m [S05].

One caution applies. Comtrade’s implied unit value for Cameroonian billet imports was about US$940 per tonne in 2023 and US$1,274 per tonne in 2022, well above market billet prices in those years (Chapter 8) [S05]. Values for this line may include costs or classifications that inflate them. This paper therefore relies on tonnages where possible and treats values as indicative.

4.4 Billets: the largest import and the true measure of dependence

Billet imports more than tripled in four years: 52.5 kt in 2019, 89.9 kt in 2020, 110.5 kt in 2021, 151.2 kt in 2022 and 161.4 kt in 2023 [S05]. Billets are the semi-finished feedstock of the re-rolling mills that make reinforcing bar, wire rod and light sections in Douala. Their growth tracks the growth of domestic rolling capacity described in Chapter 5, and their volume is the clearest measure of how far the domestic industry depends on foreign iron.

Source: UN Comtrade, Cameroon imports by partner, 2023 [S05]. Shares and the "others" residual derived.

The origin of billets is highly concentrated. In 2023 Indonesia supplied 125.5 kt (US$119.3m), Qatar 20.8 kt, South Africa 9.8 kt, the United Arab Emirates 3.0 kt and the Republic of Congo 2.3 kt [S05]. For chapter 72 as a whole, China supplied US$125.5m and Indonesia US$119.3m, followed by Qatar (US$14.5m), South Africa (US$11.4m), Türkiye (US$10.1m), Belgium (US$6.2m) and India (US$4.6m) [S05]. Concentration of this degree is a supply risk: a change in Indonesian export policy, in freight rates on the route, or in the commercial terms of a few traders would affect most of the iron units used in Cameroon.

Local scrap is the only domestic alternative, and it is limited. Industry sources state that local scrap covers about 40% of the mills’ needs and imported billets about 60% [S03][S20][S116]. Chapter 5 shows what this implies for the iron-unit balance of the industry.

4.5 Flat steel and heavy sections: fully imported

Cameroon has no hot or cold strip mill, so all flat steel is imported. Hot-rolled flat imports (HS 7208) rose from 9.4 kt in 2019 to 18.0 kt in 2022 [S05]. Cold-rolled flat imports (HS 7209) were 18.0 kt in 2019, 42.7 kt in 2021 and 47.5 kt in 2023, of which 43.9 kt came from China [S05]. Coated flat products (HS 7210), mainly galvanised and painted sheet, rose from 20.3 kt in 2019 to 30.5 kt in 2022 and 2023 [S05]. Together, flat imports were about 96 kt in 2023, using the 2022 figure for hot-rolled coil, which was not reported by tonnage for 2023 (derived).

Much of this flat steel is processed locally. Industry data show local capacity of 43 kt a year for roofing sheet against domestic demand of 21 kt, and 34 kt for tubes against 14 kt, both made from imported coil [S03]. Cameroon therefore has a flat-steel processing industry without a flat-steel producer, in the same way that it has a bar-rolling industry without enough iron.

Sections and structures are the third gap. Imports of sections (HS 7216) were 17.4 kt in 2019 and 26.6 kt in 2020, and cost between US$26.2m and US$29.6m a year from 2020 to 2023 [S05]. Imports of structures (HS 7308) were 25.7 kt in 2023 [S05]. Together, sections and structures amount to about 50 kt a year, using an estimate of about 24 kt for sections in 2023 derived from their value. Light angles, channels and flats are rolled locally by Prometal’s newer mill, but heavy sections, beams and H-sections used in industrial buildings, bridges and infrastructure are imported [S117][S05].

Table 4.1 sourcedCameroon imports of selected steel products, 2019 to 2023 (kt; US$m in brackets)

Source: UN Comtrade, Cameroon (reporter 120), imports, 2019 to 2023 [S05]. n.r.: tonnage not reported. Cameroon had not reported 2024 or 2025 product detail at the research cut-off.

4.6 Wire rod and rebar show what local rolling can do

Two lines of Table 4.1 show the effect of domestic rolling capacity. Wire rod imports were stable at 50.8 kt to 58.1 kt a year from 2019 to 2021, then fell to 22.8 kt in 2022 and 7.8 kt in 2023 [S05]. The fall coincided with the commissioning of new wire-rod rolling capacity in Douala, which culminated in the inauguration of the Prometal 4 and Prometal 5 plants in January 2024 [S117][S118]. Within two years, local rolling displaced almost 90% of wire-rod imports.

Reinforcing bar imports have been marginal throughout, between 3.7 kt and 14.0 kt a year, because they have been suspended since 2016 [S05][S04]. The residual volumes reflect derogations, project imports and enforcement gaps. In December 2020, for example, customs sealed more than 7,300 t of reinforcing bar imported by a contractor for the Kribi port works, for which the port authority had sought an authorisation covering 17,500 t [S04]. Cameroon is also a modest net exporter of bars: it exported between 27,103 t and 33,437 t of HS 7214 products a year from 2021 to 2025, 31,033 t in 2025, mostly to Chad [S114][S107][S07][S05].

Both cases point to the same conclusion. Where Cameroon has rolling capacity and protection, imports of the finished product disappear, but imports of the semi-finished input rise. The 2023 figures make this explicit: wire-rod imports were 50.3 kt below their 2021 level, while billet imports were 108.9 kt above their 2019 level (derived) [S05].

4.7 Tubes and fabricated products

Chapter 73 includes tubes and fabricated steel, which are relevant to a producer considering downstream products. Welded tube imports (HS 7306) were 9.5 kt in 2023, worth US$26.0m; seamless tubes (HS 7304) cost US$14.6m and large welded line pipe (HS 7305) US$0.9m [S05]. Cameroon’s chapter 73 imports were worth US$181.3m in 2023, less than those of the Republic of Congo (US$393.2m) or Gabon (US$235.3m), whose oil and gas industries import large volumes of tubular goods and structures [S05][S06]. Chapter 6 returns to these regional markets.

4.8 Steel’s weight in the trade balance

Iron and steel are a significant item in Cameroon’s external accounts. Chapters 72 and 73 cost 278.1 bn FCFA in 2025, about 13.0% of the merchandise trade deficit of 2,145.2 bn FCFA (derived) [S07]. The share was 14.8% in 2023 and 13.8% in 2024 (derived) [S115][S107]. Billets alone represented about half of chapter 72 value in 2023 [S05]. Reducing that bill requires domestic iron units, not more rolling capacity. Chapter 10 develops the policy implications.

4.9 What the import record tells a producer

The import record supports three conclusions that shape the rest of this paper.

The first concerns size. The market for products that are not made in Cameroon is substantial: about 161 kt of billets, 96 kt of flat steel and 50 kt of heavy sections and structures in 2023, together roughly 300 kt a year [S05]. That is equivalent to about two-thirds of apparent steel use, although billets are an input to domestic production rather than a final product, and it is growing.

The second concerns structure. Each of these three gaps calls for a different kind of plant. Billets require a melt shop with a reliable supply of iron units: scrap, direct-reduced iron, hot-briquetted iron or pig iron. Sections require a melt shop and a section mill, with product certification. Flat steel requires a hot strip mill, which is capital-intensive and normally built at a scale of several million tonnes a year; Tosyali’s flat-products complex in Algeria, for example, is sized at 2.5 Mt a year [S119]. The three gaps cannot be closed by one plant at once.

The third concerns risk. Imported billets are cheap because of the global surplus described in Chapter 1. A domestic melt shop that replaces them must compete with that price on delivered cost, while offering re-rollers advantages that imports cannot: shorter lead times, less working capital tied up in shipments, consistent chemistry and protection against freight and currency shocks. The evidence on price is examined in Chapter 8.