– Power outage causing performance uncertainty
ADDIS ABABA – Chinese textile products manufacturer, Sunshine Ethiopia Wool Textile PLC, is set to increase its investment portfolio in Ethiopia to 980 million US dollar.
The Chinese textile firm, which has been active in the premises of the Adama Industry Park since 2016 with a registered investment capital of 350 million US dollar, on Tuesday disclosed its plan to further increase its investment capital in Ethiopia to 980 million US dollar as part of its two investment phases.
Chen Min, General Manager of Sunshine Ethiopia Wool, has indicated that the planned two phases of investment would augment the company’s current export value of over 10 million USD to more than 100 million US dollar, once the company embarked operations with full capacity.
The General Manager, however, voiced his concern over recurrent electric power interruption as a major bottleneck affecting the company’s manufacturing chain.
The ongoing frequent electric power interruption has led the factory to a greater performance uncertainty in its ambition to expand its business, Chen stressed.
The general manager also noted that his factory had encountered total blackout for at least five days since last Wednesday, eventually halting operations inside the plant.
“Such power issues are hampering the factory’s production capacity, and hundreds of employees are stranded inside the factory awaiting the return of light every day,” Chen said.
In addition to challenges attributed to recurrent power cuts, investors also expressed their concern over the belated waste-water treatment scheme at the Adama Industry Park.
The waste-water treatment system, which was the Ethiopian government previously assured investors to finalize on time, is yet to be finalized and forced individual factories to unnecessary financial expenses.
“It poses another challenge to our factory because we can’t afford trucks to transport 260 tons of industrial waste every day or to take out waste from the factory,” Chen said.
The firm, when operating under normal circumstances, has an annual production capacity of 10 million metrics of wool fabrics and 600,000 sets of suits, according to the general manager.
The Ethiopian Herald Sept 12/2019
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
