Horizon Addis Tyre, a subsidiary of the MIDROC conglomerate, has begun making tyres for military vehicles and for road graders with an investment of 187 million Br.

The new types of tyres were launched last week as part of the company's plan of launching four new types of tyres this fiscal year. It took the company seven months to design, develop and test the new patterns of the tyres before availing them to the market.

The new production line has a capacity of making 10,000 grader and 5,000 military vehicle tyres a year.

Formerly known as Matador Addis Tyre, the company also launched a new batch of tyre products for three-wheel and four-wheel passenger vehicles two months ago.

It also started supplying forklift tyres to Ethiopian Airlines, which uses forklifts to carry luggage from the conveyor to aeroplanes and vice-versa. The airline had been buying the tyres from Michelin Group, a French company that designs, manufactures and distributes Michelin brand tyres globally.

After the airline tasted the product, they gave Horizon Addis a green light to manufacture the tyres for their forklifts, according to Akalewolde Admasu, CEO of Horizon Addis, which operates under Horizon Plantation Plc, a special arm of MIDROC.

The company, which has annual revenues of over one billion Birr, started making tyres for graders three years ago along with agricultural truck tyre patterns.

However, it could not break into the market, since the market was dominated by Chinese and Indian suppliers that provided stiff competition, according to Akalewolde.

A single imported grader tyre is sold for 35,000 Br to 42,000 Br in the market; however, Horizon will sell them for 18,000 Br starting this week, according to the general manager.

The Ethiopian military force, which has been using tyres imported from Russia, has already started testing the new Horizon tyre for military trucks, according to Akalewolde.

Flotation and Bajaj tyres were exported to Kenya for the third time, and the company is in the process of exporting these tyres to Sudan, according to Dawit Demilie, commercial manager of Horizon.

Established over three decades ago, Horizon makes flotation tyres for trucks that are used by sugar companies. Since 2018, the company has been supplying tyres to the Sugar Corporation, which had been previously importing them from Poland.