The Ethiopia cement industry is set for a revamp after Ministry of Industry announced it had begun drafting a cement industry development strategy to help overcome related challenges and spur faster growth of the sector.
The strategy will aid overcome challenges such as unavailability of locally produced packaging materials, inadequate transport service, high costs of production, and limited market. Coal is being used a fuel by many cement factories in Ethiopia.
Since this coal is imported from South Africa and other countries, costs of production are high. The cement industry in Ethiopia is also being faced by consistent power cuts.
According to State minister of Industry, Mebrahtu Meles, 18 companies are engaged in cement production in the Ethiopia and the country is expecting 17.15Mta in installed production capacity from the current 11.2Mta, although the current output was 5.47Mta.
Dangote’s new cement plant in Ethiopia, which is set for launching soon, will produce 2.5Mta of cement. The Chemicals and Construction Inputs Development Institute recently announced that the country had made US$13m from cement exports.
“To respond to the growing demand of cement, our government has taken major actions in creating conducive environment for cement production by both local and foreign investors. Recently, different national and international business groups have shown interest in investing in Ethiopia,” Mekuria said. He expressed for the need to lower cost of production and stimulate the market.
Ethiopia also exports cement to Somalia, Djibouti and South Sudan.
