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Holland Car Plc is making preparations to take its
car assembly process a step further by shifting to
complete knockdown (CKD), where all the parts will
be imported in pieces to be welded, painted and
assembled in Ethiopia, it says.
So far it has been assembling vehicles from semi
knockdown (SKD) kits, where parts are welded,
painted and assembled. In its earlier relationship
with Lifan Motors and now with Anhui Jianghuai Plc (JAC)
Holland Car receives SKD kits. In a CKD, the parts,
including the internal combustion engine and the
transmission, will be supplied in parts for assembly
by the receiving company.
This decision followed the problematic split the
company had with its former supplier, the Chinese
Lifan motors, which brought viability under such
relationships into questions, Tadesse Tessema
(Eng.), general manager and part-owner of the
company, told Fortune.
“If we have to survive we have to do it all
ourselves,” Tadesse said.
Holland Car Plc undertook a feasibility study for
six months and set up its research and development
department two weeks ago, according to Tadesse.
The department comprises three people, including
Jeffery D. Jenks, an American automotive engineer,
and two Ethiopians specialising in biogas and
marketing. The department will be responsible for
transforming the operations of the company from
semi-knockdown (SKD) to complete knockdown (CKD).
In a CKD, the company will need to set up body
coating line, welding line, engine assembly line and
mechanical testing line, Tadesse said, which could
require the company a capital of 35 million Br.
“Some of it will come from us. We will have to
borrow the rest from banks,” he said.
The company currently has 250 employees, but Tadesse
says that that may double when the company shifts
from SKD to CKD even though the company already has
all the professionals it needs for the new process.
Four people have already returned from training in
China on logistics, assembly, coating and
maintenance, he said.
The company also announced, last week, that it had
started assembling vehicles that could run on biogas
and petroleum, stored in different tanks, to supply
to the market cars that cut the cost of fuel
consumption. It established Sheger Biogas
Manufacturing Company to produce biogas for the new
vehicles it is assembling to run on this fuel.
A tanker and some industrial machinery for the new
plant were delivered early in January from China and
the Netherlands, respectively, the company disclosed
at an event organised for journalists on January 14,
2010.
The new plant will be constructed on a 50,000sqm
site in Burayu, 15km from Addis Abeba, in the Oromia
Special Zone, Tadesse Tessema (Eng.) general manager
of the company told Fortune.
The total cost of machinery and equipment to be
procured cost three million dollars, according to
him.
The new delivery included one large tank to hold the
human and animal excreta and other organic wastes
from agro-industries and other sources, which is
imported from China, and industrial machinery from
the Netherlands, which will convert these wastes to
biogas.
The company also demonstrated the first model of
Abay Executive sedan which runs on biogas. The
biogas holder fitted for this car has a capacity for
60 litres. Awash Executive will also be made to run
on biogas.
All models will also run on conventional fuel, and
the drivers can switch between the two sources,
Tadesse said.
The biogas plant will be operational in seven
months, according to Tadesse, when it could have a
capacity to produce 500,000 litres in its first
year.
After seven months, when the company commences full
operation it will have the capacity of generating
500,000 litres of biogas the first year.
There is no fear of shortage of waste, according to
the manager, as over one million cubic litres of
waste is collected from Addis Abeba.
The biogas could be available to car owners at five
to six Birr a litre, which could cut the cost of
fuel by half, he said. The gas will also be
available for household use.
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