The Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise awarded a 29.5 million US dollar contract to Huyton Inc Company. The contract is for the supply of coal to realize Ethiopia’s plan to use coal as fuel in cement factories.
The contract to be signed next week is for the import of a minimum of 650,000 tons of coal every month beginning from next month, for one year.
Three companies responded to the invitation to bid for the supply of coal. The companies were Wibyan, (Indonesian company), HMS Bergbau (German Company) and Huyton.The move to use coal has been welcomed by cement factories in Ethiopia, some of whom have been importing coal for their own use. Cement factories will not be able to import their own coal in the future as the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise negotiated coal imports as per the reported demand of the cement factories.
The decision to replace coal for the heavy furnace oil used by cement factories is expected to reduce foreign exchange costs.
A task force representing the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise, the Ministry of Industry, the Ethiopian Maritime and Transit Services Enterprise, as well as five cement factories is overseeing the change to coal.
The maritime enterprise is expected to sign a contract this week for the use of Port Djibouti to unload the coal according to a Ministry of Industry official.
It is to be remembered that the terms of the import between Ethiopian and Djibouti were finalized last month between Mekonnen Abera head of EMTSE, Yigzaw Mekonnen Director General of EPE and Aboubaker Omar Hadi Chairman of Port Djibouti.
Source: Addis Fortune
