May 4 , 2019
By BERHANE HAILEMARIAM( FORTUNE STAFF WRITER )
A joint Ethio-Turkish electric wire and cable manufacturing company in Gelan, Oromia Regional State, inaugurated its second factory early this month, tripling the company’s annual production to 20,000tn per year in the process.
Euro Cable's factory was inaugurated in the presence of Alfia Abdurahman, deputy mayor of Gelan; Yaprak Alp, ambassador of Turkey to Ethiopia; and Teka Gebreyesus, state minister for Trade & Industry, on May 2, 2019.
The company will begin manufacturing armoured cables used for underground systems, power networks and cable ducting. It will also produce data and coaxial cables used for networking and information technology systems and equipment.
The company will also manufacture 500 square millimetre, three-phase cables and 250 square millimetre ground cables. The factory has been manufacturing low voltage cables with sizes ranging from 0.5 square millimetre wires to 300 square millimetre cables.
The factory has more than doubled its employee base to 500 with the expansion. It also brought up its capital to 1.2 billion Br, from the 55 million Br it invested when it was established 10 years ago. The new factory lies on a 20,000Sqm compound leased to the company.
“The nation can fulfill 35pc of demand in electrical wires and cables by promoting import substitution,” said Dereje. “We can work toward export of our products if the provision of raw materials is improved.”
Euro Cable is a joint venture between Demes Kablo Ltd, a Turkish company in the cable business for more than three decades, and Glorious Plc, an Ethiopian firm that has been in operation since 1977 as importer and distributor of electrical and electronic appliances. It has a factory in Qality in a compound of 25,000Sqm where low voltage cables are produced.
Euro Cable is a member of the Ethiopian Power Generation, Transmission & Distribution Equipment Manufacturers Association, which was established last November to address challenges of the power industry, especially in the provision of raw material such as copper and steel.
The Association comprises 12 manufacturers of electrical equipment, out of which six are cable manufacturers, including Advantage Industrial, Abay Energy, Elsewdy Cables Ethiopia, BMT Energy Telecom Industry & Trade, Belayab Cables.
An electrical engineer and lecturer for more than two decades at Addis Abeba University’s Institute of Technology applauds the expansion by Euro Cable, saying that it will help the country in import substitution and save foreign currency.
"The factory has to think of enhancing its products with the manufacturing of related devices and fixtures, such as connectors and patch panels, which do not need advanced technology to produce and can also serve to save foreign currency," Tizazu Bireda said.
The two state companies in need of large volume of cables, Ethio telecom and Ethiopian Power Utility, spend over half a billion dollars on importing cables from foreign manufacturers annually.
PUBLISHED ON
May 04,2019 [ VOL
20 , NO
992]
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