Turkish Textile Maker Plans Massive Expansion at 850m Br

MNS Manufacturing Plc, a Turkish textile maker in Ethiopia, is quadrupling production with an investment of 850 million Br, with test production expected to begin November 2015.

Mahmud Nursacan, general manager of the company, has a five per cent share, with the remaining 95pc owned by Milkay Tekstile Sanayi A. S., a textile company based in Turkey, according to MNS website. The company started the expansion because of a mismatch among the different production levels, including, spinning, weaving, dyeing and garment. When the expansion is completed, all these areas will have the same levels of production.

Currently, MNS uses cotton yarn as its input, but with the installation of spinning machines, it will begin producing its own yarn.

The company now produces 4.5tn of towels a day, although the installed capacity is eight tonnes. The expansion will increase the capacity to 16tn. Its towels are mostly exported to markets in Western Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Norway and US.

So far 42 containers of machines have arrived from different destinations, including ITEMA, PICANOL, STAUBIL, and RABATEX brands from Italy, Belgium, France and India, respectively. Other machines for garment making are also being shipped now, said Tesfahun Sanna, project manager of MNS.

With its factory situated on 10ha of land in Legetafo, Oromia, on the outskirts of Addis Abeba, MNS is undertaking construction for the expansion at an adjacent eight hectare plot it leased a year ago. The plant rests on 3.2 ha. Maklina, a Turkish company is undertaking the construction, with power line installations and finishing work remaining for completion.

The company could have other business plans for the use of the spare land, Tesfahun said, but he did not specify.

MNS uses eight megawatts of electricity from Ayat substation; following the expansion it is now processing a request for two additional megawatts of electric power from Ethiopian Electric Power.

So far MNS has spent 400 million of the 850 million Br budget it had allocated; the remaining will be spent mainly on machinery acquisitions.

Products which are below export standards are available for local markets, according to Tesfahun. His company, along with Elsi Addis and E-tour, was penalised for selling its products to the local markets.

The penalty included revoking their duty free incentive and imposing income tax on their foreign employees, according to the Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (ETIDI) performance report in July 2015.

MNS is among the relocated Turkish companies with the assistance of Ayka Addis, the icebreaker to enter into the textile sector in Ethiopia after relocating its factory from Turkey in 2010. MNS started out in Ethiopia with an investment of 1.1 billion Br in 2011.

Since the entrance of Ayka, Turkish companies with more emphasis on the textile sector have been flowing to the country. There are now more than 150 companies employing 50,000 people. MNS has 750 permanent employees and is planning to add 450 more for the expansion.

So far Turkish companies have invested three billion dollars.

The textile sector has had unsuccessful performance in the first growth and transformation plan (GTP I), collecting only 456 million dollars of export revenue, from the planned 1.2 billion dollars, GTP II aims even higher at 2.5 billion dollars.


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