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Authority to Construct Road to Interconnect Omo-Kuraz Sugar Factories
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The Ethiopian Roads Authority here Wednesday signed contract agreement amounting to 2.5 billion Birr with the Chinese Communications Construction Company (CCCC) for construction of 102km road on Omo River.
The road project aimed at linking the six sugar factories under the Omo-Kuraz project with each other and main roads, Authority Director General Zaid Weldegebriel said.
The construction of the road to be finalized in three years, will be carried out in two phases. The first phase that covers 41.7km will run from the Omo no-6 junction to the junction to no-4.
Construction of a 200m bridge over the Omo River will be undertaken in this phase of the project expected to consume 108 billion Birr.
Up on completion within three years, the road will link people living in both sides of the river and the sugar factories with each other, Zaid said.
The second phase of the project that covers 60.6 will be carried out with an outlay of over 1.4 billion Birr. Construction of 157 small bridges will be carried out in this phase of the project, according to Zaid.
This road will interconnect the Omo no-4 and no-6 sugar factories with Hana- Jinka and Sawla Maji main roads.
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East Africa Bottling to Replace Production Lines at the Cost of 30 Million
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East Africa Bottling S.C. announced it is going to replace two of its production lines which are found in Addis Ababa at a cost of U.S $ 30 Million.
East Africa is undertaking aggressive expansion works which it called 2020 vision. The whole project is anticipated to double the production capacity of the current lines and cost the company U.S $ 500 Million.
The two lines that are announced to be replaced will be brand new lines with the latest technology. Commenting on this CEO of the company, Xavier Selga, said the new lines will use less energy and have greater efficiency with minimal environmental impact.
East Africa has already built two additional lines in Addis Ababa out of which one is dedicated to packaging the company’s products in plastic bottles. It is these two lines that raised East Africa’s number of production lines in Addis Ababa to five.
Replacement work has also been carried out by the company at it’s two of production lines in Dire Dawa. This is said to have enabled the company to increase its production from two million cases to seven million cases.
According to Selga East Africa is on the process of constructing a plant in Bahir Dar, which will be its third plant, at the cost of U.S $ 20 Million. He further noted, his company is waiting to officially inaugurate its new water product, Dasani, which it has already introduced.
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Ethiopia’s First Oil Blending Plant to Start Production
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Ethiopia’s first ever oil blending plant commenced production on Tuesday, June 24, 2014. The plant is erected by Naztech Petroleum Investment Group at the city of Galan in the Oromia State.
The oil blending plant is the first of series investments that are going to be made by Naztech in Ethiopia.
The plant is said to produce different lubricants using the latest standards of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and it is also in line with Ethiopia’s objectives of indigenizing its oil and gas industry.
Upon commencing production, Naztech is expected to produce passenger car lubricants, diesel engine oil-automotive, two stroke motor oil-automotive, automotive specialty, gear lubricants, industrial lubricants, greases and marine lubricants.
http://www.2merkato.com/news/alerts/3073-ethiopias-first-oil-blending-plant-to-start-production
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LIDI Stated Value-Added Leather and Leather Products Revenue Increasing
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Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute (LIDI) proclaimed Ethiopia’s foreign currency revenue from export of value added leather and leather products has been growing.
During the 11 months of the current fiscal year Ethiopia has managed to collect U.S $ 122 Million from the export of leather and leather products. According to the Ethiopian News Agency the sum collected exceeds the same period of the previous year by 10 percent.
Birhanu Serjebo, the Institute’s Corporation Communication Director, said Ethiopia is following the path of exporting finished leather and leather products by adding values to them.
BIrhanu further noted Ethiopia has exported to different nations shoes, gloves and outfits made from leather, the dominant being shoes. Out of the total revenue over U.S $ 90 Million goes to finished leather products, he added.
According to the Director Ethiopia’s aim for this year was to collect U.S $ 347 Million from the sector. He attributed the failure to lack of modern raw leather and hide system.
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Tana-Beles sugar project ‘on schedule’
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Tana Beles sugar development project is progressing as per the schedule, the project consultant said.
Hassen Abdu (Eng.), representative of Acute Engineering, a local consulting firm, told WIC that civil works has been completed for two of the three sugar factories planned to be built under the Tana-Beles Sugar Development Project.
Ethiopian Sugar Corporation (ESC) expects the two sugar factories each with the capacity to crush 12,000 tcd (tons of cane per day) to go operational during the first months of 2015. The third factory is slated to go operational in the second phase of the Growth and Transformation Plan period (GTP II).
Adgeh Mekuria, deputy director general of the project, confirmed to WIC that the crushing plants will undergo testing in 12 months.
“We expect the factories to start producing sugar next year [Ethiopian calendar],” Adgeh said.
The crushing plants, currently under construction, are located in Amhara region some 576 km north of Addis Ababa. The project will cultivate 75 thousand hectares of land with sugarcane plantations. A portion of the plantation will be within the Benishangul Gumuz region.
At full capacity, the three sugar factories are expected to produce 726 thousand tons of sugar and 62.4 mln liters of ethanol from cane by-products.
The project will also offer seasonal and permanent job opportunities to over 69 thousand people, Adgeh said.
Currently, Ethiopia produces some 300,000 tons of sugar per annum while the demand for sugar stands at around 500,000 tons.
Ethiopia’s massive investment in sugar development projects across the country could see the nation produce 1.58 million tons of sugar annually by mid 2015, according to announcements made by the ESC in May this year.
http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php/explore/13913-tana-beles-sugar-project-on-schedule
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Norway supports Ethiopia’s green economy development
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Government of Norway made a 60 million dollar financial support to Ethiopia’s efforts of building green economy. The support will be used to forest development projects aimed at reducing carbon emission.
Belete Tafere, Minister for Environment and Forestry on the occasion noted that the financial support will have an important contribution to Ethiopia’s efforts to expand forest coverage with a view to build green economy and development of ecotourism.
Tine Sundtoft, Minister for Climate and Environment of Norway noted that Ethiopia and Norway hold strong position on climate change.
She hailed Ethiopia’s commitment and effort to combat the challenges of climate change and affirmed that Norway will continue to support these efforts.
Ethiopia and Norway has prepared draft projects on climate change to be implemented from 2013-2020.
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Filed under: Ag Related, Economy, Infrastructure Developments, News Round-up Tagged: Addis Ababa, Agriculture, Business, East Africa, Economic growth, Ethiopia, Investment, Sub-Saharan Africa, tag1
