Ethiopia: Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn has inaugurated Habesha Cement’s 1.4Mt/yr plant at Holeta in Oromia. The US$140m unit was built by Chinese contractor Northern Heavy Industry, according to the Ethiopian Herald newspaper. Dessalegn said that the new plant is part of the national plan to surpass local cement production of 27Mt/yr by the end of the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) that will end in 2020. The plant is now expected to create 600 jobs in its operational phase.
The subsidiary of PPC is the third international project the South African cement producer has completed over the last year. On 17 April 2017 PPC Barnet in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) despatched its first truckload of saleable cement from the plant near Kimpese in the Kongo Central. The 1Mt/yr cement plant was commissioned in February 2017.
"With the completion of the plants in the DRC and Ethiopia we have achieved two significant milestones in our quest to become a major player in the cement industry across Africa" said Njombo Lekula, Managing Director, International operations, PPC. “Both plants have been built using the latest technologies, in line with international standards.”
