Ethiopia: A 180,000-ton-per-year aluminum plant begins operations near Addis Ababa

The Chinese group Xinye Special Steel has commissioned an electrolytic aluminum plant with a capacity of 180,000 tons per year in the Gada Special Economic Zone, about sixty kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The start of operations was announced on September 28, 2026, and reported on October 2, 2026, by the Ecofin Agency.

The plant transforms alumina into aluminum through electrolysis, a process that is highly electricity-intensive, to primarily supply the Ethiopian domestic market. According to the Ecofin Agency, the chairman of Xinye Special Steel, Xu Wenping, presented the project to the commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission, Zeleke Temesgen. The total investment amount and the number of expected jobs were not disclosed.

An industrial link without national deposits

The unique aspect of the project lies in its raw material. Ethiopia does not have major exploited bauxite reserves and does not produce alumina on a commercial scale: the input will therefore have to be imported, passing through the Modjo dry port, which is connected to the Addis Ababa–Djibouti rail and road corridor. The plant is thus positioned at the final link of the chain, the one that creates value and jobs, but remains dependent on external supplies.

The economic rationale is nonetheless clear. Ethiopia imports most of the aluminum consumed by its construction sector, metal joinery, and packaging industry. Producing a portion of this volume locally helps reduce the foreign currency bill in a country that has had to restructure its external debt and where access to foreign exchange is constrained.

Addis Ababa multiplies metallurgical projects

The project is part of a broader industrialization strategy through special economic zones, which Addis Ababa has been using for a decade to attract Asian manufacturers. In the aluminum metallurgy sector, a protocol was signed in November 2025 with the Russian firm Rusal for a 500,000-ton-per-year unit, the realization of which would require approximately one billion dollars in investment over three to four years, again according to the Ecofin Agency.

For the continent, the issue goes beyond Ethiopia. Africa still massively exports its ores in raw form and re-imports finished products at a much higher price. Each processing plant installed on African soil shifts this balance of power slightly, provided that energy is available, skills are transferred to local engineers and workers, and tax revenues are actually collected. These are the three conditions that will need to be measured in Gada in the coming years.