Insights · Roll forming
What Nigerian roofing makers buy: long-span sheet, step tile and ridge cap machines, plus C/Z purlin, gutter and downpipe as add-ons. Thickness checks, SON and SONCAP, import taxes, generator power and what to send for a quote.
This guide is for a roofing shop that buys coil and sells formed sheet to builders, hardware dealers and contractors, rather than a large coil-coating mill. You already know your customers. The questions are which machines make sense, how thick your sheet is, and what to check before you order from overseas.
Profiles. Nigerian roofing directories and price guides describe long-span aluminium sheet and stone-coated step tile as the main residential choices, with coated steel sheet as a third option. Most of these pages are seller pages, so treat their market claims as opinion, not statistics. We found no independent market-share data. Your own sample sheet is the reference for the profile, not a brand name.
Thickness. Sellers commonly quote 0.55 mm or thicker for residential aluminium long-span, and some quote a steel core of 0.4 mm or more for stone-coated tile. Press reports on Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) seizures cite 0.4 mm as the minimum for aluminium roofing sheet under NIS 488, but older documents cite other figures, and we did not find the current standard text. Always check the current requirement with SON. Give us the thickness in millimetres, not a gauge name.
Standards and imports. SON runs SONCAP, a pre-shipment verification scheme for regulated imports, and agency documents list roofing sheets among those products. That matters if you also import finished sheet, but it concerns the sheet, not the forming machine. The machine does not decide coating or base metal. Your coil does. The machine decides cover width, rib height, straightness and cut length.
Demand. Housing need in Nigeria is large and commonly described as a shortfall in the millions of units, but we have no verified figure and no figure for how many sheets one house uses. Do your own volume count before you size a line.
Every line is built to your drawing. The figures below are catalogue figures from each machine page. Final figures are confirmed on the quotation.
This is the core machine for long-span trapezoidal and corrugated sheet. One machine forms one profile, and the rolls follow the rib height, pitch and cover width of the sheet your customers already buy. It takes 0.3 to 0.8 mm material from 914, 925, 1000 or 1250 mm coil, with 18 roll stations (depends on the profile), a 5.5 kW main motor, a 3 kW hydraulic station, hydraulic post-cut and a forming speed of 10 to 20 m/min. Sheet length is set on the PLC screen. Compare your sheet with the cover widths listed on the page: trapezoidal and corrugated roof sheet machine.
If you sell two profiles side by side, this puts both on one frame with one cutting station and one control cabinet. Only one level runs at a time, and you move the coil to the other level when you change product. It is catalogued for 0.3 to 1.0 mm, coil 1000 or 1250 mm, a 7.5 kW main motor, a 4 kW hydraulic station and 10 to 15 m/min. See the double layer roof sheet machine.
Step tile sheet suits houses where the owner wants a tile look at a lower weight than clay. The wave is formed first, then a hydraulic press puts in the step at each tile row and cuts the sheet. Because the press stops the sheet at each step, speed is 3 to 5 m/min, so plan your output on that figure and not on the plain sheet speed. Catalogued for 0.3 to 0.8 mm and coil 914, 1000, 1220 or 1250 mm, with a 5.5 kW main motor and a 5.5 kW hydraulic station. Stone-coated tile also needs a coating process that is not part of our range. See the glazed tile machine.
A roof needs ridges and valleys as well as sheet. Making them yourself lets you sell the whole roof from one yard. The machine forms round ridge, trapezoid ridge and V-valley flashing from 300, 456 or 462 mm coil, 0.3 to 0.8 mm, at 10 to 15 m/min with 12 roll stations (depends on the profile), a 4 kW main motor and a 5.5 kW hydraulic station. Round ridge can be step pressed to match a glazed tile sheet. See the ridge cap machine.
Roof sheet on a warehouse, factory, church or farm building sits on purlins. A shop that sells sheet to steel-frame builders can sell the purlins too. The machine makes C, Z and U purlins in 1.5 to 3 mm steel, web 100 to 300 mm, flange 40 to 80 mm and lip 15 to 20 mm, with 16 roll stations (depends on the profile), an 18.5 kW main motor and an 11 kW hydraulic station, and bolt holes punched in line. It is the heaviest machine here, so check your generator size first. See the C/Z/U purlin machine and our purlin buyer guide.
Rainwater goods can use the same coil colours as the roof, so a shop with a roof sheet line can add gutter and downpipe from the same stock. The gutter machine takes 247, 303, 635 or 645 mm strip at 12 to 15 m/min with 19 roll stations (depends on the profile). The downpipe machine takes 180, 300 or 342 mm strip at 8 to 10 m/min with 18 roll stations (depends on the profile). Both are catalogued for 0.3 to 0.8 mm with a 5.5 kW main motor and a 4 kW hydraulic station. Each profile needs its own roll set. See the gutter machine and the downpipe machine.
If you stock full-width coil, a simple slitting line cuts it into the narrower strips that gutter, downpipe and ridge machines need, and also cuts flat sheet to length. It takes 0.5 to 1.5 mm material in 1250 to 1500 mm coil at 8 to 10 m/min. That is a simple line, not a high-speed slitter, and its thickness range starts at 0.5 mm. See the slitting and cut-to-length line.
Long-span sheet in Nigeria is often aluminium, and our catalogue lists a thickness range, not a metal list. If you sell sheet at 0.4 mm or 0.55 mm, both fall inside the 0.3 to 0.8 mm range of the trapezoidal machine. Aluminium and coated steel behave differently in the rolls, so tell us the metal, alloy or grade, temper and exact thickness in your first message. We check them before we quote. Do not assume a thinner or harder sheet will run.
Send your roofing sheet profile for a quote in 12 hours →
Taokron roll forming machines are built to your drawing. Taokron (Melbourne) handles drawing review, quotation, pre-shipment inspection, shipping and after-sales support. Lead time is about 60 working days from drawing approval and deposit. Warranty is 12 months from commissioning, with remote video support included and an on-site installation engineer available on request, quoted per order. Since 1994 our team has supplied machines to buyers in 100+ countries. If your plan also includes ducting, see our Nigeria duct fabrication market guide. A similar buyer guide for East Africa is the Kenya roof sheet guide.
Long-span sheet in aluminium or coated steel, and step tile (glazed tile) sheet, with ridge caps to finish the roof. Many Nigerian sellers also list stone-coated tile, which needs a separate stone-coating process that our range does not cover. Profile names differ from seller to seller, so send a sample piece or a dimensioned drawing and we build the rolls to that.
Nigerian sellers commonly quote residential aluminium long-span at 0.4 mm or 0.55 mm and above. The Taokron trapezoidal and corrugated machine is catalogued for 0.3 to 0.8 mm, so both thicknesses sit inside that range. Tell us the metal (aluminium or coated steel), alloy or grade, and exact thickness before we quote.
No. Base metal, thickness tolerance and coating come from your coil, not from the machine. The machine controls cover width, rib height, straightness and cut length. Ask SON or your coil supplier which Nigerian Industrial Standard applies to your product, and check it directly, because press reports we read cite the minimum gauge differently over the years.
A double layer machine puts two profiles on one frame, one cutting station and one control cabinet, and only one level runs at a time. It suits a shop with limited floor space that sells two profiles. If both profiles must run at the same time, two machines are the better fit.
Reference tables commonly list Nigerian mains as 230 V single phase and 415 V three phase at 50 Hz, but many workshops run on a generator part of the day. Measure at your workshop and send us voltage, phase, frequency and the generator size you plan to use, so the motors and cabinet are matched to it.
VAT in Nigeria is 7.5%. Import duty follows the ECOWAS Common External Tariff bands, from 0 to 35%, and a law-firm summary says manufacturing machinery moved to 0% duty in 2026. We have not confirmed the rate for roll forming machines, and other levies may apply, so ask your clearing agent to confirm the classification and total landed taxes before you sign.
Send a sample sheet or drawing, thickness and coil width. Ryan Tao replies within 12 hours with a configuration, lead time and price.
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Describe your job and what you are trying to make. A Taokron mechanical engineer replies within 12 hours, not a salesperson.
Guide: Roofing Sheet Roll Forming Machines in Nigeria: What Local Roofing Makers Buy
Roofing lines in the Taokron range: trapezoidal and corrugated sheet, double layer sheet, glazed tile, ridge cap, gutter, downpipe, C/Z/U purlin, slitting and cut-to-length and all roll forming machines.
