ETHIOPIA PULP AND PAPER S.C is a company located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The company is mainly working in Carton Boxes/Trays/Packets business sectors.
Ethiopian Pulp and Paper Share Company was established and gets legal recognition in August 29, 1955 E.C. The shareholders of this company were ministry of finance, Ethiopian Development Bank, Ethiopian Investment Bank and Panser and Witmor Company with a beginning capital of 50,000 birr. When it started production in 1962 the total expenses were 22 million birr and at the same time its capital was pumped to 10 million birr.
Currently the shareholders of the company are Ethiopian government 70% and IFC 30%. During its establishment the company produces paper product of 25 ton daily and 8,500 ton annually. According to the study made in 2006, EPPSC has got a 38% market share in corrugated box market of our country. In addition to that we have 25% market share in wrapping paper.
The factory has opened job opportunity for 684 employees out of which 534 are permanent and 150 are contract. In addition to that EPPSC has organized more than 158 youths in association for the processing and supplying of recyclable paper.
The production unit consists of paper plant which has been upgraded in 1989 to increase production capacity to 10,000 ton/annum. Beside that we use a converting plant (machine) with 13500 Ton annual production capacity. A new corrugator machine with a capacity of 17,500 ton/annum and a box printer was added in 2001 to the Box plant. These improvements enable the company to increase its production capacity to 10,000 ton paper and 11,470 ton corrugated carton box yearly.
Our Paper Machine is composed of FORMATING SECTION, PRESS SECTION, DRYING SECTION and CALENDER/REEL SECTION. This plant was constructed in the late 1960’s and commissioned in 1970. Our paper machine has a single paper machine with a 2,840 mm reel trim. The paper machine makes printing and writing papers and paperboards in the 45 to 350 gsm basis weight range.
The new corrugator (Box making machine) was supplied and installed in 2001 by Yantai Star Packaging Co. Ltd (China). The machine has a trim width of 1600 mm and a design speed of 120 m/min; however the normal operating speed achieved by our company is only 45-50 m/minute. Above this speed it has been found that the fluting is crushed in the process, or skipping occurs. At speeds of 60-80 m/min there also were reports of a drying limitation. The process has a total steam demand of 2,500 kg/h and a power demand of 180 kW.
The new corrugator uses recent technology believed to be found only in two African countries and utilized the largest production capacity in our country and capable of producing 120Mt board per minute.
A Flexo-printer-slotter from Ming Wei Paperware Machinery Co., Ltd. (Taiwan) is used to print, score, fold, and glued to produce the finished corrugated boxes. The majority of boxes produced are printed for the customers by our printer machine. This Highly Computerized Converting (printer) machine which is capable of working by itself without help (PRINTING, STITCHING or DIE CUTTING and PACKING), utilized the largest production capacity in our county and found out to be applicable in only one country in Africa.