Angolan President João Lourenço inaugurated an aluminium production factory this week, located in the Barra do Dande Free Trade Zone, the result of a Chinese investment valued at US$212.9 million.

The venture, set up on an area of 73 hectares, began production with a daily capacity of 1,200 tonnes, with annual revenues expected to exceed $300 million. The project is structured in five phases and, in the second phase, plans to expand production capacity to 240,000 tonnes per year, with an additional investment estimated at $500 million.

At the inauguration ceremony, João Lourenço expressed his satisfaction with the start-up of the industrial unit, stressing that the project symbolises the implementation of the strategy to attract domestic and foreign private investment and represents an important step in the diversification of the Angolan economy.

‘We are not satisfied with the fact that Angola exports almost exclusively crude oil, and in its natural form at that,’ said the Head of State, adding that this situation should change with the strengthening of national industrial processing capacity, including the future commissioning of the Lobito Refinery.

(Source: Jornal Mercado, on 16 January)