Product Description: Textiles are made from natural fibers (cotton, wool, silk) synthetic fibers (polyester, nylon…) or a blend of natural and synthetic fibers. In our country, the overwhelming majority of the population (especially those who live in the rural areas wear garments made from synthetic fibers. The most popular clothing material is fabrics made from polyester fiber. Fabrics made from polyester have desirable properties like adaptability, high strength, good processing and shrinking quality, rot resistance, easy to care and handle, resistance to light and chemicals, Since demand for fabrics made from polyester fiber is extremely high in the Amhara Region, the purpose of this project idea is to indicate the potential benefit of manufacturing the fiber in the region.
Market Potential: Of the 19.2 million people living in the Amhara region, around 17.3 million of them live in rural areas. Practically all these people wear garments made from polyester fabrics. If we assume that one person consumes at least 5m2 of polyester fabrics, total annual consumption of the product is about 86.5 million m2. Of the 1.9 million people who live in urban areas, about 50 percent of them wear garments made from polyester fabrics. Again if we assume that each urban resident consumers about 7m2 of polyester fabrics per year, total consumption of the product by the urban residents of the region is about 6.65 million m2. Thus, consumption of polyester fabrics in the Amhara region is about 93.2 million m2 per year. More than 95 percent of the polyester fabrics being consumed in the region is imported. If a polyester fiber making plant is established in the region, it will be much easier to establish a polyester fabrics manufacturing plant to supply the regional market.
Source of Raw material: The main raw materials are chemical products called polyamides and poly a crylnitrile in which polyethylene tereph thalatc is used to produce polyester fiber. These products of the chemical industry will be imported.
Process and Technology: The main processing stages are continuous or discontinuous polycondensation, melting or polyester chips making, spinning spin fibers, textile filaments or industrial filaments and spin drawing. Once the spin fibers and filaments are produced, they are delivered to other manufacturing plants. Main machinery and equipment needed for making polyester spin fibers are granulate feed vessel, dryer, extruder, spinning heads, textile finish panel, take-off roller set, laying of undrawn tows, feed creel, textile finish, stretching, crimping, heat-setting, cutter, baling press and laying of drawn endless tows. Machinery for polyester filament include granulate feed vessel, dryer, extruder, winder, spinning heads, bobbin trolley, draw-texturizing and draw-twisting.
Estimated Investment: For a plant which can produce about 1,250 tons of polyester fiber per year, the estimated investment will be :-
§ Building/shade…. = Birr 4,000,000
§ Machinery ……….. = Birr 65,600,000
§ Working capital… = Birr 5,000,000
Total = Birr 74,000,000
Benefits: Similar to other projects.
Location: Combolcha.