Part 1: First large-scale biomass preparation and firing at Messebo Cement: Getachew Okbay, Messebo Cement Factory PLC (Ethiopia)

Part 1 of a 2 part presentation co-authored with Michael Suppaner, ATEC. Filmed at Cemtech MEA 2015, 8-11 February, Grand Hyatt Dubai, UAE


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Good morning every body. I will give you a brief introduction in Cement industry in Ethiopia first then the drivers for the biomass, then Mr. Michael will continue on the pile processing on the details of the technology. Ethiopia is located in East Africa with 90 million population and it has become one of the fastest growing economy in Africa.

It's a country recovering double digit growth for the last 10 years. So the macro involvement of the country is very conducive and attractive, so many local companies and international companies are investing in Ethiopia. The construction sector in Ethiopia has also shown a remarkable growth due to the sustainable economy growth.

Construction boom in the country has attracted investors to invest in cement plant construction. Due to this investment, many new plants have joined the cement market and the Ethiopian market is now changing into a new scenario. Just few years back, like 10 years back there were only two cement companies in Ethiopia.

One was Messebo with 2000 tons of clinker per day and the other one is a government plant with 3000 tons per day of clinker. So that time was like hot cake where the cement plants can sell with high price about 250 USD per ton and it was really the sellers market, now the scenario is completely changing.

The cement production in Ethiopia when you look at it, there are about 18 plants now at the moment, start operation and their capacity is 11 million tons per year it about 700% than it was before 7-8 years back. The production by the end of June this year will reach to certain millions because Dangote and PVC from South Africa will join the market too.

As per the government plan, the local cement production capacity is expected to reach to 27 million tons by the end of 2020. Where now the Government is now launching the GDP 2 program for the coming five years. This is the trend as already briefed you. The demand side, when we look to demand side consumption in the country is increasing and will continue to increase along with the economy growth.

So let's quickly see what are the drivers for the cement in Ethiopia. One is the power sector, the power sector is one of the key drivers for the cement demand in the country. Due to the development of industries and huge urbanization programs, the power demand in the country is increasing from time to time. At present, just few years back there were only a potential for two thousand megawatts in the country.

In 2015, it will reach to ten thousand megawatts and in 2020 it will raise to twenty thousand megawatts. Currently our government is building one of the huge power generation scheme with six thousand megawatts in Nile Basin that is about four billion projects and Messebo has signed a contract to supply this special cement with low heat hydration, high sulphate resistant cement.

Apart from the hydro power projects, the government is also allocating significant budgets in wind, solar and turmoil power generation plants. So you can imagine the consumption or the demand starting from the generation units to the transmission foundations and sub stations too. So the power sector will still continue to be the most driver for the cement industries.

The second big demand is from the road sector. From the road sector, at this point there's about 90, 000 kilometers which is as far concrete process in the country and the government has planned to increase by diving to 180,000 kilometers in the next five years. There's also big railway projects about 5, 000 kilometer network of railway which is connected to big four cities to the port of Djibouti. You know Ethiopia is a land locked country, we're using the port from Djibouti and from Somalia land.

So the road

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