2merkato

The National Tobacco Enterprise of Ethiopia is seeking financial sources to purchase machinery able to produce 20,000 pieces of cigarette per minute at an estimated cost of around 142 million Br.

The Enterprise purchased its second machine in 2003 since it started production in 1941. Together these two machines have the capacity of producing 7,000 cigarettes per minutes it was stated by to Ayele Alebel, public relations officer of the Enterprise.

The enterprise is not able to satisfy the market demand with this production capacity currently that it covers only 62 percent of the market He added. The annual demand is around 6.5 billion pieces of cigarettes in 2012, but the company is producing only 3.7 billion sticks according to Ayele.

The Ethiopian Leather Industries Association is looking for supplier for non-iodized salt in the aftermath of a four month shortage. The Association is seeking suppliers from Yemen, India and Pakistan even though there is an estimated stock of 9 million quintals currently piled up in Afdera, where the national salt mines are to be found.

The industry is forced to look for imports after a four month delay in spite of more than adequate national production to meet the 30 thousand quintal demand over that period according to Abdissa Adunga, Secretary General of the Association.

The supply of salt to the industry was affected by a Council of Minister’s endorsed regulation to halt the sale of non-iodized salt noted Abdisa. The Ethiopian Food, Medicine and Health Care Administration and Control Authority was mandated with the task of issuing a directive to regulate the processing and sale of salt intended for industrial purposes according to the regulation.

The capacity of Ethiopian reinforcement steel bar manufacturing companies is at 61% according to the Metal Industry Development Institute of Ethiopia.

The companies were able to increase their capacity from 41% according to Fite Bekele, Director of the Institute Corporate Communication Directorate.

The Institute expects to raise the production capacity of the companies to 95% by the end of the GTP plan said Fite. The companies are receiving a range of support with this plan in mind he said.

Mesfin Industrial Engineering, Ethiopia is planning to build Geely cars within the next five years with the Chinese company. The manufacturer expects to commence full blown production within the next three to five years according to Habte Hadish, General Manager of MIE.

MIE is currently assembling six cars a day but is looking to begin manufacturing cars completely within the country he said.

Mesfin Engineering registered 620 million birr in revenue in the last fiscal year and has projected to earn 1 billion birr in this financial year.  The company currently assembles trucks for International Tractors Ltd, which is part of Hoshiarpur, Indian based Sonalika group.

The Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute launched a  leather and leather products training course in eight technical and vocational colleges in the current academic year.

The training program was launched in Addis Ababa City Administration and Oromia Regional State according Berhanu Serjebo Director of Corporate Communication with the Ministry of Industry.

The courses are intended to produce a steady supply of skilled professionals for the leader sector to support efforts to modernize the processing techniques within the sector.