Muger Cement Enterprise plans coal conversion project, Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s Muger Cement Enterprises is considering proposals from two Chinese suppliers to award a turnkey project for converting the current Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) clinker burning system to coal fired system.

Declining to disclose the names of the companies, Mekonnen Zergaw, CEO of the Enterprise told Fortune that five companies had participated in the bid, of which one has been disqualified at the beginning while two companies did not pass the technical evaluation.

The government instructed cement factories in 2010 to shift from HFO to other alternative sources of energy to reduce the foreign currency spending. Although government was determined to import petcoke, it was not able to find a supplier which resulted in coal being the second option.

The Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE) thus began to import coal for the 15 cement factories in operation except Muger and East cement factories, which did not have the facilities.

The companies, however, are not taking the imported coal from the enterprise stating that they are not fully operational because of the sudden drop in demand for cement. This has made the enterprise appeal to the Ministry of Industry (MoI) for a solution two weeks ago. (Source: All Africa)