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Angola Light Industry
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Assembling chairs and finishing wood at a small furniture
factory
By 1986 light industry, which included textiles,
clothing,
tobacco, soaps, matches, and plastic and wood products,
had almost
been restored to its preindependence level of production.
The
largest investments in light industry have been in two
large
textile projects: the Africa Têxtil plant in the city of
Benguela
(US$15 million), completed in 1979, and the Textang-II
plant in the
city of Luanda (US$45 million), completed in 1983. They
each had a
production capacity of more than 10 million square meters
of cloth
per year but have produced far less because of shortages
of cotton.
Other notable investments have been in wood processing
(US$12
million), with projects in Cabinda and Luanda.
The state-owned National Textile Company (Emprêsa
Nacional de
Têxteis--Entex) has also suffered from a shortage of
cotton.
Founded in 1980, Entex had factories throughout the
country and the
capacity to produce 27 million square meters of cloth per
year. By
1987, however, the company was turning out only 12 million
square
meters. Likewise, the production capacity of blankets was
nearly
1.7 million per year, but only 900,000 were produced in
1986.
Adding to Entex's problems, one of its major factories,
Textang-I,
was shut down in 1986 because of a lack of treated water
and damage
from mud. By 1987 no stocks of raw materials or spare
parts had
been replaced.
Similarly, plastics production under a state-run
company was
only about half of installed capacity. Operating factories
abandoned by the Portuguese after 1976, the state agency
suffered
from a lack of materials and from aging equipment. It
employed
foreign technical assistants but had also been training
Angolan
workers at home and overseas.
Data as of February 1989
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