The Ethiopian government and British supplier Hayton Inc. have agreed to extend the coal supply agreement with by a year. The renewed contract will expire in December of 2013.

It is to be remembered that deal was originally made between the supplier and the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise on behalf of National, Derba MIDROC and Messobo cement factories for the supply of 600 thousand tons of coal by December 2012.

The agreement was extended following alleged contract violations due to cement factories in Ethiopia failing to purchase the coal delivered it was noted. The factories claimed that they were unable to make use of the coal that they had already purchased due to reduced demand for cement in the country forcing to rein back production according to sources.

The factories agreed to buy the coal according to shipments of an estimated 50 thousand tons of coal beginning from March 2013 it was learned.

The coal purchase will tie up capital more than what is required by the current production rates of the factory but it will comply with the extended agreement said Engineer Baso Assefa, General Manager of National Cement Factory.

In related news Messobo cement factory is trying out sesame husks as an alternative to coal. The company reached a 7.6 million US dollar agreement with Austrian company ATEC to set up the facilities to process the husks it was learned.

Source: Fortune