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Mills to be Prohibited from Importing Billet

Steel rolling mills in Ethiopia are going to be prohibited from importing billet (semi finished steel).
There are eight steel rolling mills in Ethiopia which import billet.

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development decided two weeks ago to ban the billet imports and assign a state enterprise to import the billets and distribute them to the rolling mills.

Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance, summoned representatives of the Building Materials Supply Enterprise two weeks ago and told them that the ministry would soon ban the billet imports, and the enterprise would assume the responsibility of importing and distributing billet.

The Building Materials Supply Enterprise is going to float a tender in the next few weeks inviting international companies for the supply of billets.

Currently, Ethiopia consumes 25,000 tonnes of billet a month. Owing to the construction boom, demand for iron is growing steadily.

The enterprise will require bidders to supply for three months (75,000 tonnes of billet) and it will distribute the imported billet to the steel rolling mills.

Turkish iron factories are known for supplying billet to Ethiopian steel rolling mills.

Ethiopia has an estimated 80 million tonnes of iron ore deposit, but it has not exploited it yet.   

Source: The Reporter