Habesha Cement attracts Chinese and Indian tenders

One Indian and four Chinese companies have offered tenders for the engineering, procurement and construction of the brand new Habesha Cement plant. Of the four Chinese companies, Sinoma International and CDI-Changdu Cement Research Institute are currently involved in the installation of equipment for the expansion of the Mugher Cement plant. The other two, namely Hefei Cement Research Institute and Northern Heavy Industries are undertaking similar projects for the Messobe and National cement plants respectively. African news agencies report that the Indian company is Walchandnagar Heavy Industries, a company much involved in the sugar industry but now venturing into the cement industry.

The technical and financial evaluations will be completed and the result announced within three months. Habesha will select the firm to carry out the consultancy work for the engineering, procurement and construction within two weeks. For this there are three Indian firms in the running: Tata, Clair and Holtec, and one Pakastani firm, Cementech.

The project is expected to take about 22 months and when completed Habesha is expected to bring 1.2 million tpa of cement into the market, more than half of the 2 million tpa produced by Mugher, Messobo, Derba MIDROC, Abyssinia, Jema and National cement plants. In 2008-09 some 2 million t were imported to supplement the domestic production, which had declined because of power cuts during most of 2009. National demand is expected to rise to 13.8 million t in the next five years, but local supplies may only achieve 8 million t.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/africa-middle-east/26022010/habesha_cement_attracts_chinese_and_indian_tenders/