Displaying items by tag: East African Holding

Ethiopia: Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has inaugurated the Lemi National Cement Factory, built by a joint venture between West International Holding, the African arm of West China Cement, and East African Holding Company. With a production capacity of 15,000t/day, this facility is now reportedly the largest in Ethiopia, according to Xinhua news. Located 150km north of the capital city of Addis Ababa in the Lemi Building Materials Industrial Park, the project cost US$600m.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said "The project exemplifies the swift and efficient delivery of crucial infrastructure. Congratulations to all those involved in realising this important project, which now produces 50% of the cement made by plants across the country."

Ethiopia: The Lemi National Cement Factory is preparing to start production. The 8Mt/yr plant is expected to be completed in March 2024, according to the Xinhua News Agency. China-based Sinoma International Engineering is building the unit. The US$600m project is a joint venture between West International Holding, a subsidiary West China Cement, and the East African Holding Company. The plant is located at the Lemi Building Materials Industrial Park around 150km north of Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia: Lemi National Cement Factory’s construction of its upcoming Lemi cement plant is 70% complete and will conclude in time for inauguration of the plant on schedule in early 2024. Ethiopian News Agency has reported that construction of the 8Mt/yr plant’s preheater frames and rotary kilns finished on 28 November 2023. China-based Sinoma International Engineering is carrying out the project, which has a total cost of US$600m. Lemi National Cement Factory is a joint venture of local conglomerate East African Holding and West China Cement subsidiary West International Holding.

Derba MIDROC Cement signed a contract with Sinoma International Engineering in recent weeks to build a US$282m upgrade at its integrated Derba cement plant in Oromia. The move is the latest in a steady stream of projects that have been announced in Ethiopia over the last few years. Other recent developments include a deal in July 2022 by businessman Getu Gelete to buy PPC’s stake in Habesha Cement and plans in August 2022 by investor Worku Ayetenew to build a US$1bn cement plant with a production capacity of 12,000t/day. Alongside these capital intensive projects, the government has been trying to regulate the price of cement through measures such as setting fixed prices, limiting the volumes that individuals can buy and asking producers to cut distributors out of the supply chain.

To summarise some of the plant projects over the last couple of years, the Derba MIDROC Cement upgrade project intends to double the production capacity of the integrated Derba cement plant in Oromia to 15,000t/day. The other big ongoing project was announced in early 2021 when East African Holding and China-based West China Cement agreed to build a 10,000t/day plant at Lemi in Amhara Region. East African Holding is the parent company of National Cement, one of the larger producers in the country. Then in July 2021 Sinoma International Engineering’s subsidiary Suzhou Sinoma signed an initial deal with Western International Holdings, West China Cement’s international arm, to build the plant. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited the construction site in March 2022 to lay the foundation stone but no commissioning date has been disclosed so far. Based on Sinoma’s assessment when it signed the contract, construction would take around 20 months, so a commissioning date by late 2023 seems reasonable. There are also a number of other projects that have been announced in the local press such as Abay Industrial Development Share Company plant at Dejen. FLSmdith said that the contract to build the 5000t/yr plant became effective in late 2020. However, not much more has been released publicly. Another project at Berenta in Amhara is also reportedly under construction.

The Global Cement Directory 2022 places the country’s production capacity at around 12Mt/yr. This compares to 15Mt/yr from 13 companies as reported by a local news source although this figure is likely to also include grinding plants. Yet the same source also placed the actual working capacity at 6Mt/yr due to old machinery and poor maintenance. As for the market in Ethiopia, Dangote Cement said that the sales from its Mugher plant rose by 1.8% year-on-year to 1.7Mt in the first nine months of 2022 and that the unit was running at full capacity in the third quarter. It reckoned that it held a 42% market share during this period, out of a total market of around 4.2Mt. Previously it said that the total market for the whole year was 7Mt in 2021.

Unfortunately it also mentioned issues with security in the region. This became a live issue this week with news that at least 30 employees of Dangote Cement were reportedly kidnapped in early December 2022 by an armed group that calls itself the Oromo Liberation Army. This is particularly sad for the company given that its country manager was shot dead in 2018. Two employees of the Mugher Cement plant were also taken hostage by the same group in October 2022 although thankfully they were later freed.

A number of projects have been announced in Ethiopia over the last few years but they appear to be taking a while to materialise. This time though a couple of the projects do seem to be on the way and the change in ownership of Habesha Cement seems to suggest a renewed vigour to the local construction market since the government opened up investment. Unfortunately, security concerns are pressing as demonstrated by what happened to some of Dangote Cement’s staff this week.

Ethiopia: East African Holding and China-based West China Cement have formed a joint venture. The Xinhua News Agency has reported that the partners plan to establish a multi-industrial complex in Ensaro Woreda district, Amhara regional state. Called Lemmi National Cement complex, the facility will house a 10,000t/day cement plant in addition to other industrial plants. The partners say that the facility will create 5000 jobs.

The first phase of the project will establish the cement plant and reach completion in late 2022.