BY TESFANEWS
China SFECO group, a subsidiary of Shanghai Construction Group Co. Ltd., held a groundbreaking ceremony in Eritrea to undertake different agriculture-related plants worth US$ 100 million.
The massive Engineering, Procurement, and Construction project will constitute the construction of three cold food storages in three different sites; an aluminum can manufacturing plant, and a high-quality PVC agriculture drip irrigation pipe production line.
The Eritrean Ministry of Agriculture owns the projects after securing a 630 million Yuan preferential loan from the Chinese government.
The increasingly assertive SFECO group has already won a number of massive infrastructure and natural resources projects in the country.
Its first penetration to the country was made after it successfully acquired 60% share of the Zara gold project from Chalice Gold Mines (ASX: CHN; TSX: CXN) at a whopping price of US$114 million last year.
The Eritrean government through the Eritrean National Mining Corporation (ENAMCO) owns the remaining 40%.
Soon after, it won the “Eritrea Equipment Procurement Logistic Contract” from the Eritrean government worth $161.54 million and successfully deliver the thousands of machinery and equipment in two phases that include dozens of excavators, motor graders, rollers, loaders, cranes, pumps, tractors, buses and some other construction and agricultural equipment.
The second batch of shipment that was made in mid-May alone constitutes 415 units of construction machinery and vehicles, and 687 boxes of spare parts, mainly for tractors, trailers, excavators, bulldozers, road maintenance truck, passenger buses, trucks, and drilling motors.
It also won another multi-million dollar Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the Hirgigo Power Plant Extension project that is near completion to streamline the electric supply in the country.
The cordial business relationship between the state of Eritrea and China SFECO Group started three years ago after Mr. Tong Jisheng, Vice-President of Shanghai Construction Group and the President of SFECO accepted President Afwerki’s invitation to make a state visit to Eritrea.
