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Diageo Planning US$ 50 Million Expansion in Ethiopia

Diageo, the London based alcoholic beverages company is planning to invest at least US$ 50 million in the Meta Abo Brewery soon, according to Capital.

Diageo’s Marketing Director for African Regional Markets, Ekwunife Okoli, said the company will be investing in the expansion of the Meta Abo Brewery.

“We are going to invest in expanding our brewing capacity as well as our packaging capacity. Currently, we are constrained in regards to both. So, there will be a new packaging line as well as expanding our brewery capacity” Okoli stated.

Construction work on the expansion is set to start in two months within the premise of its brewery is currently located.

“The demand for our brand has kept growing; that is why we are putting significant investment into expansion,” Okoli said.

Diageo became the third European company to invest in Ethiopia’s alcoholic beverages industry after it acquired Meta…

Icelandic Company to Develop Geothermal Power in Ethiopia

Reykjavik Geothermal, the Icelandic geothermal development company has agreed to develop as much as 1,000 megawatts of geothermal projects in Ethiopia over the next 10 years, according to Bloomberg.

Reykjavik expects to start drilling test wells next year, Chairman Michael Philipp told Bloomberg in an interview on September 27, in New York.

The plant will produce 10 MW by 2015, and a total of 500 MW by 2018. A second phase of the project may have a capacity to produce as much as 500 MW of energy. Ethiopian Electric Power Corp. has agreed to buy all the electricity under a 25-year contract, Bloomberg reported.

East Africa's Great Rift Valley, which stretches across eight countries, have an estimated 20 gigawatts of geothermal energy potential, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The project, which will be the largest geothermal power undertaking in the continent, is planned to be located in Corbet…

Habesha Brewery Offers Additional Shares for Sale

Habesha Brewery is offering additional 300,000 shares to its existing shareholders after failing to get adequate bank credit.

Habesha has plant to install a brewing plant with annual capacity of 500,000 hectoliters in Debre Berhan Town, 120 KM outside of the capital, Addis Ababa.

The project is projected to cost 631 million Ethiopian birr. However Habesha has raised 40 per cent of the project after the acquisition of 43 per cent of its shares by the Dutch brewer, Bavaria NV.

The latest sale of shares is expected to raise Habesha's paid-up capital to 550 million birr.

Currently Ethiopia's largest brewer is BGI Ethiopia with brewing plants in Addis Ababa, Kombolcha and Hawassa with combine annual brewing capacity of 1.9 million hectoliter.

Source: Fortune

Yangfan Motors Expanding its Assembly Plant in Ethiopia

Yangfan Motors P.L.C., a Chinese based Company, is to expand its vehicle assembly plant in Ethiopia at a cost of US$4.2 million.

The company has been assembling vehicles during the past four years in Ethiopia. Yangfan Motors signed agreement on Thursday for purchase of its assembling and manufacturing facility with Eastern Industry Zone located in Dukem, Oromia Regional State.

Liu Jiang, the Company's General Manager on said the company has supplied close to 3000 vehicles to the Ethiopian market so far.

The new plant, which will go operational within the next six months, will increase the company's annual production capacity to 5000 units from the current 1000 units.

Source: ENA

Ethiopian Airlines Wins Bombardiers Airline Reliability Performance Award

Ethiopian Airlines, the fastest growing airline in Africa, is pleased to announce that it has won the 2013 Airline Reliability Performance Award from Bombardier Aerospace. This is the third time Ethiopian has won the award in a row.

The award was given to Ethiopian for achieving an average dispatch reliability rate of 99 per cent or better on revenue passenger flights in 2012 and stood first in the overall Q-400 product category for the Middle East and Africa region.

“We are pleased to receive the award for the third year in a row. This is a testament of our dedication for excellent customer service which is in continuous improvement every day,” said Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian.

From left to right: Diane De Souza, VP Parts Services at Bombardier Customer; Kidus Melkamu, Manager Turbo Prop and Light Aircraft Maintenance at Ethiopian MRO; Zemene Nega, AVP Ethiopian MRO and Todd Young, VP, Customer Servi…

ERA Contracted Chinese Companies for Road Upgrade Project

Ethiopian Roads Authority last week signed agreement with two Chinese construction companies to upgrade the Kombolcha-Bati road to asphalt concrete level. The 133 KM road project is estimated to cost the Authority close to 2.8 billion Ethiopian birr.

Construction of the road, which is scheduled to be completed in three years time will be fully financed with a fund secured from the World Bank. The project is part of the fourth Road Sector Development Program (RSDP IV) of the Authority, for which implementation costs are estimated to reach 125.3 billion birr. Out of this, 84.5 billion birr is allocated for federal projects, 14.4 billion birr for regional and 26.4 billion for weredas, the smallest administrative subdivision.

The RSDP is part of the Ethiopian Government's Road Sector Development Program (GTP), tasked to upgrade 728 KM of trunk and link roads and construction of 4,331 KM of new link roads.

The Ethiopian Roads A…

TCDD to Assist Ethiopian Railways Corporation

The Turkish State Railways (TCDD) has agreed to assist Ethiopia in technology transfer, restructuring its railways system and to give training to its personnel.

Ethiopia has asked for assistance from TCDD via the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) in order to reactivate its railways between the capital Addis Ababa and Djibouti, which has been stopped since 1997.

In a meeting held at TIKA’s office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the TCDD and Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) has agreed on cooperation on numerous areas.

According to the agreement, TCDD will prepare operational regulations, help in ERC’s structuring and give technical support in railway building, supervision, observation, projects and agreement, give training to the personnel and build capacity for human resources, give technical support in transfer of technology and share knowledge and experience in the administration of immovables.

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Shoe Exporter Huajian Planning a Huge Expansion in Ethiopia

Huajian, one of the largest shoe exporters in China, is planning a multi-million-dollar factory expansion in Ethiopia to benefit from preferential trade tariffs and lower labor costs.

The company, which makes women shoes for global brands such as, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Naturalizer, Clarkes and others opened its factory at a purpose-built industrial zone on the outskirts of Addis Ababa a year ago.

The company has launched new line of injection-molded shoes several hundred more workers to the 1,750 Huajian already employs in Ethiopia, where the leather industry is well established, but unemployment is rife.

Huajian has also signed an agreement with the China Africa Development Fund, a private equity fund owned by China Development Bank, to invest jointly USD 2 billion over 10 years in developing manufacturing clusters focused on shoe-making in Ethiopia, Helen Hai, manager who runs the company's plant in Ethiopi…

Brazilian Development Bank to Provide USD1 Billion for Ethiopian Railway Project

The Brazilian Development Bank will extend USD 1 billion in funding to construct a portion of the railway project that will connect Ethiopia and South Sudan, an Ethiopian Foreign Ministry official said.

Brazil's Andrade Gutierrez Participacoes SA will be contracted to build the railway link running from Addis Ababa, to Jimma about 439 kM to the southwest, Taye Atskeselassie, director general for the Americas at the ministry, said in an interview on May 24.

The Brazilian Development bank “is willing to finance the project,” he said after Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn met Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. “The technical side has been finalized, it’s only the financing part; it’s a matter of the details.” Construction will begin “soon,” he said.

EXIM Bank of China concluded a loan agreement worth nearly USD 3 billion for a railway project extending from Addis Ababa to the port of Doraleh in Dji…

Boeing 787 Dreamliners to Resume Service Soon

Boeing 787 Dreamliners will resume flights following a fix for batteries soon, Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency said quoting Boeing Company officials.

Vice President of Marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Randy J. Tinseth and Engineering Leader, 787-8 Systems Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Richard J. Horigan said here Wednesday that professionals from Boeing Company are working in collaboration with the Ethiopian Airlines to fix the batteries.

The officials said that it takes up to five days to change batteries for a single Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Ethiopian's four Dreamliners remain grounded for four month. The aircrafts are expected to resume service in the near future following battery the battery fix, according to the officials.

Source: Walta