ETHIOPIA: New cement plant fills seven percent of Ethiopia’s need

Chinese cement company, Hung Shen, inaugurated its cement plant, around Mojjo town, 75 km from the capital at a cost of 500 million birr.

In just a few months the company will be able to double its cement production to about two million tons per year. The plant, which began production a year ago, completed expansion in six months, upgrading its production capacity. Currently, it produces 2000 tons of cement per day.

Chinese and Ethiopian government officials, including Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Mine and Energy, attended the inauguration ceremony at the cement plant’s compound. Alemayehu said that the current production capacity of Hung Shen makes about seven percent of Ethiopia’s cement.

Currently, the company has completed phase two of the cement plant expansion around Gebre Guracha, 165km northwest of Addis Ababa at a cost of 3 billion birr. When the plant starts production scheduled in the next three months, it is expected to increase the production capacity of the company to 4 million tons per year. Currently the total production capacity of cement factories in Ethiopia is 2 million tons.

Gebre Guracha has one of the most enormous resource areas of Limestone, which is a major component of cement production. The current Chinese cement plant at Mojo is close to pumice minerals, the material found in Portland Pozolana Cement, the type of cement the plant makes. Currently, however, the cement plant is using limestone produced near Hirna, 300km east from the cement factory.

Ethiopia uses about 8 million tons of cement every year but only produces about 2.4 million and with the construction boom demand for cement has skyrocketed.

Now over 25 local and foreign inventors have received a license from the government to produce cement and huge cement factories like Mugher, National and Mosobo are expanding to increase production. 

The other plant, Zhongshun Cement Manufacturing Plant, was constructed at the Chinese Industry Zone at a cost of nine million dollars. It was inaugurated in May this year and built around Dukem. The production capacity of the factory is 250 tons of cement per year.

Hung Shen plans to invest about 6 billion birr in four Ethiopian projects, including the expansion work of the two cement plants, and its plastic bag factory which began production in Dukem town, 37km east of Addis. The plastic bag factory produces stuffing bags for Hung Shen cement. When it expands, the plastic factory will produce 660,000 bags per day.

The company also plans to build a five star hotel in Addis Ababa at a cost of 2.4 billion birr.