The Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigray is building the first PVC resin plant in Ethiopia with a capital investment of seven billion birr. The plant will manufacture other industrial chemicals as well as PVC resin.
The plant will be constructed in Tigray Regional State near on a 48 hectare plot of land which has large deposits of limestone. It is expected that the plant will have the potential production capacity of 60,000 tons employing a method of production that is known as the limestone to calcium carbide to acetylene route.
EFFORT floated the first tender for the plant a year ago drawing interest from international bidders but cancelled the bid before floating another bid last week for the consultancy service to execute the project.
It is expected that the plant will save foreign currency and help enhance domestic manufacturing dependant on industrial chemicals said Girma Alemu, Finance Manager of Oromia Pipe Factory plc.The chemical process through which industrial chemicals such as PVC resin are made is very sophisticated and capital intensive and although some domestic producers produce other chemicals there are no manufacturers of PVC resin in the country explained Tewole Gebremichael Chemical Engineer with Plastech plc, a domestic company which manufactures windows and doors.
Plastech has been importing PVC resin from petroleum producing countries.
Ethiopia imported 38,244 tons worth a total of 75.2 million US dollars in the 2010/11 financial year according to the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority.
Source: Addis Fortune
