The Lemi National Cement Factory in Ethiopia, the country’s largest of its kind, is to begin production soon, company officials have said.

The factory is expected to be completed in March, according to its constructor, Sinoma International Engineering Company.

When fully operational, the factory is expected to boost the East African country’s annual cement production capacity by eight million metric tonnes, the officials said.

The Deputy Manager of the factory, Abebaw Bekele, said that the plant would help to alleviate Ethiopia’s incessant cement shortage currently affecting the country’s construction sector.

The megacement production factory is also expected to create employment opportunities for some 20,000 Ethiopians, according to the officials.

Owned by a joint venture of West International Holding, the African arm of West China Cement, and East African Holding Company, the Lemi National Cement Factory is under construction at a cost of 600 million U.S. dollars.

It is located at Lemi Building Materials Industrial Park, some 150km north of Addis Ababa.

Company officials have recently announced the installation of huge preheater frames and rotary kilns, structures in which big rocks are decomposed under high temperatures to produce cement. 

(Xinhua/NAN)