Dangote Industries Ethiopia Plc received 180 of the 600 trucks it is going to use in Ethiopia for the transport of its products; the rest have already arrived at the Port of Djibouti.
These trucks are among the 12,000 trucks Dangote Group has ordered from China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Co. Ltd. (SINOTRUK), in an agreement signed in Nigeria last year. The trucks coming to Ethiopia are part of this deal. The company has so far spent 315 million Birr for the 180 trucks, which have been imported duty free. They are all 371 model Sino trucks, with special specifications in their manufacturing especially in their engines and wheels which have the logo of Dangote, according to Anemut Kassie, Dangote’s transport head.
One heavy truck has the capacity of transporting around 45 tons of cement at a time
The total cost of the 600 trucks is 20 million dollars, which comes to around 33,333 USD per truck, said an official of the company anonymously, adding that importation of the remaining heavy trucks is expected to be finalised within ten days.
Most of the trucks will initially be used in Addis Abeba, said Anemut, although eventually only 70pc of them will continue serving in Addis Abeba, with the rest going to such destinations as Adama, Shashemene, Dessie and Bahir Dar.
In delivering its products through its own transportation facility, Dangote follows in the footsteps of Derba Midroc Cement that first introduced the market strategy of delivering cement through the factory’s own transport service in 2011, with 1000 Volvo trucks.
Dangote currently operates on 134ha of land near Mugher in Oromia, where it has a plant with a production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes a year.
The company is planning to build warehouses in Adama, Shashemene, Dessie, Jimma, Nekemt and Addis Abeba.
Exploration activities for the mining of potash and coal, as well as a packaging bag factory are also areas of interest in the long-term plans of the company, Country General Manager of Dangote Industries, Teshome Lema said.
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