Product Description: Wall tiles which are used to cover building walls are made in various types - porcelain, semi-porcelain, fine earthenware, etc. Wall tiles are mostly made from quartz, feld-spar, kaolin, clay, etc. The tiles may broadly be classified into those for external and internal decoration. Porcelain tile is used for exterior and earthen tile for interior purposes. Unglazed tile is used for the coverage of floors and glazed tile is used for the purpose of decoration.
Market Potential: In the past wall tiles were used to cover the walls and floors of bath rooms, kitchens, etc. In recent years wall tiles have been used to cover the outside walls of multistory buildings. The interiors of hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical buildings, food factories and the like are covered with wall tiles. A trip through the major streets of Addis Ababa reveals that the outside walls of many new high rising buildings are covered with tiles. This indicates that the demand for these building materials will increase and the building industry expands as it has been doing for the last 10 years. There is only one factory (located at Awasa) which produces wall tiles. But most of the wall tiles used by the building industry of the country are imported, and the import volume has been increasing at increasing rates.
The wall tiles consumption of the Amhara Region is meet by the supply of the products from Awasa (more than 850 km from Bahir Dar) or from imports. As the demand for the product will certainly increase in the future, the Amhara Region has to produce its requirement of wall tiles within the Region. Production of wall tiles in the Region could also be a source of supply for the Beni-Shangul Gumuz Region and for eastern Sudan. The demand for wall tiles of the Region and of adjacent areas will justify the establishment of a wall tiles producing plant.
Source of Raw material: The main raw materials for making wall tiles are mentioned above. All of the raw materials are found in the Region but their deposits must be studied further to determine the location of the proposed plant.
Process and Technology: The main production stages are blending, crushing, grinding, molding, drying and firing. Tiles are made either glazed or unglazed. Maidn machinery needed include crushing and needed include crashing and preparation unit, forming and glazing unit, firing unit sager making unit other miscellaneous units. Please not that process descriptions given in a very summarized form.
Estimated Investment: For a plant which will produce about 3000 tons of tiles per year, investment requirement will be
Building/ shade 6,000 m2 at Br 2000/m2= 12,000,000
Machinery 42,000,000
Working Capital 8,000,000 62,000,000
Benefits: promotes sell-sufficiency, utilizes regional natural resources, and facilitates the development of the building industry, potential export to neighboring regions.
Location: To be determined by the size of the deposits of the main inputs and by the availability of the necessary infrastructures