NEW DELHI: India's Aarti Steel inaugurated a $55 million steel producing factory in Ethiopia's Oromia Regional State, in what analysts have called an “unusual foreign investment” in the little-known Ethiopian steel-manufacturing sector. The factory to be based on 40,000 square meters of land in the Galan area of Oromia state, on the outskirts of capital city Addis Ababa is the project of Indian-based diversified manufacturing company Aarti Steel, a market-leading steel producer. Having secured a business license from the Ethiopian state in March of this year, the company said it now “stands ready to launch its factory and commence production.” While the company's Indian-based manufacturing operations produce multiple types of steel product largely for use in the automotive industry – including carbon and alloy steel rounds and squares, sponge iron, power and ferro alloys, spring steel wires and tyre bead wire – the company's Ethiopian factory will initially focus only on the production of galvanized corrugated steel, the Reporter disclosed.
