Bishoftu Automotive Engineering Industry, a subsidiary of Metals & Engineering Corporation (MetEC), secured a deal to supply 350 pickup trucks worth over half a billion Birr to public offices.

The Ethiopian Construction Works Enterprise, the Defense Construction Enterprise, different town administrations, and federal and regional courts have made a deal with Bishoftu Automotive Engineering Industry for the assembly and supply of the vehicles at a cost of about 560 million Br. The contract includes 310 N2s model double-cabin and 40 N3 double-cabin pickup trucks.

Originally, Liaoning signed an agreement three years ago with Bishoftu Automotive to provide parts for 500 pickups.

Thus far, Bishoftu Automotive has imported 150 pickups from the total for different government organisations.

Bishoftu Automotive, which was re-established in 2010 with a capacity to assemble four vehicles every eight hours, has already imported the components for 60 N2s model double-cabin pickups two months ago. And so far it has assembled and delivered seven of those vehicles.

The components for the rest of the 290 light vehicles are expected to be imported within the coming two months, according to Fikiru Abebe, head of a secretariat office at Bishoftu Automotive, which was first established in 1984 and operated under the Ministry of Defence. It was re-established in 2010 as a public enterprise under MetEC to perform a leading role in assembling military and commercial vehicles.

Bishoftu Automotive, which resides on the premises of MetEC's headquarters in Bishoftu (Debre Zeit), 40Km south of the capital, was awarded the contract through a direct procurement process, according to Fikiru.

The company hopes to deliver all of the vehicles within five months, according to Fikiru.

It can not produce the vehicles quickly, however, due to the pandemic, the ongoing foreign currency crunch and a labour force shortage, according to Fikiru.

The engineering industrial firm, which has over 3,000 employees, is now operating with 200 to 300 employees due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has resulted in the restrictions against public gatherings.

The Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation, which was re-established in December 2015 and operates in six sectors, signed an agreement with Bishoftu last week to procure 25 light vehicles.

“The order we gave them was for 35 light vehicles, but since they had other orders, they offered us 10 less,” said Alehegn Mossu, deputy CEO of the Corporation in charge of construction equipment and the machinery management division.