Sinotruck assembly plant opens in Addis Ababa

NA Metals, Industry and Engineering invested 250 million birr to open a truck trailer assembly plant in Addis Ababain partnership with the National Heavy Duty Truck Group Company (SINOTRUCK), a Chinese state-owned truck manufacturing firm.
The site NA Metals is using lies on 12,000 square meters and is located around Haile Garment. The factory, which took two years to construct, can assemble 1,200 trucks per year and should create around 400 jobs. Assembling the trucks here will also save foreign currency and help local workers develop skills.
At the inaugural ceremony, held on November 25, NebuyuAssefa, owner of NA metals said, “for many years Sinotrucks were brought into our country, now it is time for us to assemble the trucks here.”
The company is asking for an additional 25,000sqm from the Addis Ababa City Administration to expand the assembly plant.
“We are expecting to get the land in less than two months, when we expand we can double production and produce some of the materials here in Ethiopia.”
He added that the new plant should save Ethiopia a lot of foreign currency used to import heavy duty vehicles and plans to eventually export the trucks to other countries.
Chinese Sinotruck International is also sharing their experiences with the company. According to Zhang Yuzong, the Africa Division Sino International Manager, the company transfers its technology for free.
He added “I hope that the Ethiopian government can help support truck sales.”
NA Metals Industry and Engineering was established 10 years ago. At first it produced metal products and field tankers, but now the company has enlarged its capacity to assembly Sino Trucks for the first time in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is a major market for SINOTRUK products. Founded in 1956, SINOTRUK is the largest exporter of trucks in China, accounting for 19 percent of the total trucks exported out of the Asian country in 2014. The company’s revenue from overseas sales was nine billion Yuan (USD 1.45 billion), accounting for about 13 percent of the total sales.