The Ministry of Industry (MoI) has directed the Ethiopian Maritime and Transit Service Enterprise (EMTSE) and Ethiopian Shipping Lines (ESL) to prepare transportation and port facilities for the unloading of coal to be imported by the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE).
A letter officially directing the three institutions signed by Mekonnen Manyazewal, minister of MoI, was sent last week. The ministry had been looking for an alternative energy source for furnace-oil cement factory use and initially had looked at importing Pet Coke. However that proved difficult both in terms of supply and cost, so the ministry has turned to coal. A task force composed of ESL, MTSE and five major cement factories along with MoI has considered the possible import of coal from countries, based on geographical proximity and institutions capable of importing at competitive prices.
The MoI is mandated to assess how much coal is needed by cement factories. Accordingly, EPE is tasked with preparing the necessary human resources and budget and looking for companies to supply coal and import it from South Africa within a month.
MoI is to collect the cement factories actual monthly demand of coal and available stock at their factory in a week's time, according to sources inside the MoI.
Two months ago, National and Messobo factories had teamed up to import 41,000tn of coal from South Africa. Currently, except the state-owned Mugar and East cement factories, which are expected to finalize installation of infrastructure for using coal, all 12 existing cement factories have the necessary infrastructure to use coal.
The estimated annual demand of coal for the cement factories this fiscal year is 896,500tn, excluding the two factories which will not install the necessary infrastructure this year, according to research conducted by a team of experts.
Considering the geographical proximity and degree of Caloric value of the coal which is 6,300 kilo calories and cost-effective prices, the team has chosen South Africa for importation. This has alsobeen approved by the minister.
About 207.30 dollars will be spent for one metric tonne of coal to be transported from South Africa, according to the assessment.
Out of all factories, the highest amount of coal is consumed by Messebo and Derba Midroc factories, which have the capacity of producing 2.1 and 2.3 million tonnes of cement yearly, and consuming 272,000tn of coal each.
Coal found in Ethiopia is known for its less caloric value and is highly flammable. Reserves amounting to 628 metric tonnes, largely deposited in Illibabur, Oromia regional state and Semien Shoa, Amhara regional state, were discovered in the 1940s, according to the study.
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