Representatives from Sakai Heavy Industries PLC visited Ethiopia to introduce the company's newly designed road stabilizer machine, The Reporter reported.

A team of four Sakai representatives, led by Ryohsuke Watanabe, managing director for international business headquarters of Sakai, presented the advantage of the new road stabilizer machine to Ethiopian officials at the residence of Japan’s Ambassador, Sazuhiro Suzuki.

Yasutsugu Kanamori (Ph.D.), deputy general manager of the technical laboratory at Sakai, said the new technology is handy for full depth reclamation and soil stabilization of subgrade and base of roadways.

The machine is suitable for both urban and rural roads. It multi tasks different activities such as cutting, mixing and crushing asphalt emulsion, lime with sand and cement along other additive multi tasking capabilities, according to The Reporter.

Asnake Negash, director of road maintenance at the Ethiopian Roads Construction Corporation, said the features of the machine are essentially important to Ethiopia. He further noted that, a machine that can multitask would reduce construction time and traffic jams. He added reusing and recycling asphalts that are damaged at a minimum cost makes the machine desirable.

Asnake has invited for further discussion the officials of Sakai to his office. Nevertheless, Asnake is skeptical about the hefty price of machine. Watanabe told The Reporter that a unit price of PM550 upto US$ 800 thousand depending on the optional features the buyer desires.

The visit by Sakai representatives, is linked to the recent state visit of Premier Shinzo Abe, according to Ambassador Suzuki. With a handful of Japanese companies, Abe’s mid-January visit to Ethiopia encouraged Japanese companies to revisit the capital.

Source: The Reporter