Mesfin Industrial Engineering launched Saturday an assembly plant for Addis Car in partnership with Geely International Corp, a Chinese manufacturer. Addis Cars will assemble Geely cars powered by 1.3cc engines and equipped with double airbags and an anti-breaking system.

Mesfin has been assembling trucks and this is the first time for it to assemble automobiles. With the machinery the company imported for 10 million birr, it is capable of assembling five Geely automobiles at a time and over 800 a year.

Mesfin Industrial had imported 34 completely built units of Geely cars to test its appeal to middleclass customers at the end of 2010. The cars were sold at 285,000 birr each, which encouraged Mesfin Industrial to install the assembly plant, according to Yusuf, manager of sales and promotion at Mesfin Industrial.

Mesfin also has the sole distribution rights in Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan where Geely is not licensed to distribute. The company has been the exclusive importer and distributor of Geely cars in Ethiopia since August 2010.

By February 2011, 13 vehicle and tractor assembly companies were licensed and started operation. Some of companies are owned by foreigners, according to the Ethiopian Investment Agency.

Source: Fortune