Addis tyre plant in euro 50 million upgrade-report
ERJ staff report (DS)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Ethiopia's only tyre factory is being upgraded with a Birr 1100 million (euro 50 million) investment. According to a local press report, the company is upgrading to radial technology, with support from Continental.
The report quotes Belay Dechasa, General Manager of Horizon Addis, saying the company is buying a production line for car and light truck radials, due on stream in September 2012, eventuially reaching output of 200,000 units/year.
The paper says Addis currently makes 250,000 units of cross-ply tyres annually, which represents 50 percent of nominal capacity. The factory serves around 20 percent of Ethiopia's demand, with the remainder being serve by mports.
The report quotes Umesh Davera, Commercial Director of the Company saying Ethiopia imports 85 percent of heavy truck tyre requirement; 75 percent of the demand for light truck tyres, and 55 percent of the consumer demand. For instance, Ethiopia imports close to 40,000 Isuzu tyres annually. Total value of tyre imports is around Birr 1600 million (euro 72 million) annually
In 2004 the Slovak company Matador acquired 61 percent of the equity in Addis Tyre. The remaining shares are held by the government. After Matador sold its tyre activities to Continental, an Ethiopian-borne Saudi billionaire, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Ali Almoudi acquired Matador's shares through his company, Horizon Plantation Plc and renamed the company Horizon-Addis Tyre Share Company
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Investing beyond the horizon, tyre company upgrades EthioSPorts (Ethiopia)
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