Bishoftu Automotive Engineering Industries has secured a contract for the supply of a total of 126 heavy trucks to the state construction company for 327 million Br.

A subsidiary of the state-owned Metals & Engineering Corporation (MetEC), Bishoftu Automotive will assemble and supply the trucks in four different models to the Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation. The contract includes three tractor trucks with low-beds, 120 Beiben dump trucks, two mixer trucks and one fuel truck.

So far, Bishoftu Automotive, which was re-established in 2010 with a capacity to produce four vehicles in eight hours, has supplied 51 Beiben dump trucks and the fuel truck.

The remaining trucks are expected to be delivered in the next 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 both military and commercial vehicles. It started manufacturing vehicles in June 2011 by importing parts from China and Europe.

The Corporation awarded the company with the contract through a direct procurement process after getting approval from the Ministry of Finance. The contractual agreement between the Corporation and Bishoftu Automotive was signed last July.

The Corporation, which was re-established in December 2015 with the Council of Minister's regulation and contains six sectors with different operational activities, paid 30pc of the total value of the trucks as an installment payment last November.

After receiving the trucks, the Corporation will be deploying them to more than 30 of its projects, according to Alehegn Mossu, deputy CEO of the Corporation in charge of construction equipment and the machinery management division.