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National Cement SC, formerly Dire Dawa Cement SC, is
to construct a new cement plant in Dire Dawa at a
project cost of 700 million Br.
With East Africa Group Plc, possessing 80pc of the
company’s shares, it was re-established in November
2005 as a joint venture with the Privatisation and
Public Enterprises Supervisory Agency (PPESA), the
latter commanding the remaining 20pc of the shares.
The Dire Dawa Provisional Administration has granted
40hct of land to the company and the latter floated
an international tender a month ago to hire a
contractor. Subsequently, seven contractors’ offers
are under evaluation for the bid that was closed on
August 22.
“We need a contractor which undertakes a turn-key
project,” Mekonnen Legesse, Board chairman of
National Cement, told Fortune.
The project site of the company is located three
kilometres from the existing cement factory in
Bejatu and the plant that will be erected will have
a capacity to produce 45,000qt of cement per day.
Established in 1938 in Dire Dawa, 500Km east of
Addis Abeba, National Cement SC, which has a
production capacity of 25,000qt per year, ceased
production on September 3, 1987, due to bankruptcy
and obsolescence. PPESA gave the responsibility to
run the cement factory to Mugher Cement Factory in
2000, enabling the factory to commence production in
January the same year.
National Cement, which has 121,202 shares each
having a par value of 1,000 Br, has made new
arrangements allocating 100 million Br for a
rehabilitation and expansion project.
A Chinese Construction Company, Chaoyang Machinery
Group Import and Export Ltd, will carry out the
construction of the new plant, which will produce a
new brand of cement, National Cement, next month.
Upon visiting the company, Fortune learnt
that modern machineries have replaced old
machineries of the factory.
Wondossen Eshete, acting general manager of National
Cement, told Fortune that the rehabilitation
would boost the factory’s production capacity from
4,500qt to 5,000qt per day.
The company’s two projects of constructing a new
cement plant and rehabilitation of the existing one
has forced it to explore sites for its raw material
demands. Henceforth, the company requested an
exploration permit from the Ministry of Mines and
Energy (MoME). It requested eight hectares of land
in Jijiga, seat of the Somali Regional State, to
explore Gypsum; 65hct in Melka Jebdu, Dire Dawa, for
the exploration of clay; and a plot in Minjar,
Amhara Regional State, for exploration of Pumice.
A source at MoTI told Fortune that the
Ministry would facilitate the request of the cement
factory.
The two other currently active cement factories,
Messebo Cement Factory and the largest, state-owned
Mugher Cement Factory, produce 630,000tn and
876,000tn of cement a year respectively.
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