The Syrian leather industry and Adra

The Adra idea was conceived in 2003 and the move of the tanneries should be completed in 2012. This seems to be quite realistic once you have visited the area! The first tanners are believed to be ready to move before the end of this year, which is the target date for the central tannery effluent plant to enter into operation.
The construction of the effluent plant is based on Ukrainian technology and executed by a Turkish construction company under the direction and supervision of a Syrian team of engineers. Work started in January of this year and is now about 70% completed, hence the deadline for start-up in January will most probably be met. The plant processes complete tannery effluent without upstream separation of chrome. As a result the produced sludge contains chrome which will be dried and dumped in protected sites. Upstream chrome separation will be required after some years.
This decision for upstream chrome separation as a next step has been a practical choice to ensure that tanners can start producing without too much hassle. Then the effluent plant produced waters are sent to the area’s main effluent plant that serves all of Adra for final processing.
The first tanners are finalising the installation of machines, whereas others have just started construction. Some tanneries are still in the pre-construction or planning phase. In contrast to the system which has been applied in Robbiki, Egypt (Leather International April), the tanners have designed their own tanneries according to their individual requirements, which makes for a large variety of constructions, which is a more appropriate approach than standardised halls.
When I talked to the Egyptian tanners, all knew that they needed to move but all were reluctant to be the first and are holding back. In fact I believe that little or nothing will happen out there for the time being. In Damascus tanners are instead quite eager to move, to leave their present rather difficult housing situation and re-start their activities in a modern and efficient tannery.
The tanning industry wants to establish a training centre as in Robbiki, Addis, Khartoum, Thika and other places. It lacks the financing for the moment and is looking to Unido, ITC and other such organisations for this. Anyway, the training centre is not a top priority. The top priority is to start producing in the new tanneries.
Adra is a huge industrial complex and the tanning area is just a minor part to the tune of 250 hectares over a comprehensive 5,450 hectares when the area is completed. There are some big heavy industries, including a huge cement factory and automobile assembly plants, as well as food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Many companies are already in full production, hence Adra is not a white elephant in the desert, which virtually surrounds the industrial area.
On the contrary, one gets the impression of capability and efficiency. Things are moving, working and made easy for investors. A one-stop-shop gets you with one application telephone, insurance, electricity, gas and water just to name one of the benefits. It is obvious to see that the infrastructure comprises of banks, shops, housing for workers etc.
Let me give you some figures on the Syrian leather industry. There are about 130 officially registered tanners in the Damascus area, but probably the actual number reaches 200. In Aleppo there are somewhere between 50 and 70 tanneries and in Hama about 10. These tanneries employ about 5,000 workers, hence each tannery unit is relatively small in their old location. The whole value chain consists of about 500,000 people.
Livestock accounts about 15 million sheep and lambs, 7 million goat (FAO reports, probably erroneously, only 1 million) and one million cattle. The take off rate is 500,000 hides, 10 million sheep and lambskins and some 300,000 goat and kid skins (FAO report). Syria imports some 10,000 tons of cattle hides, mainly from Sudan. Thus the available hides and skins account for 55-60 million sq ft of leather which is mainly sold to the local market, with a few exports to Italy (vegetable tanned crust) and neighbouring countries like Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
Practically all chemicals are imported. Drums are either imported second hand from Turkey or are locally made from Russian pinewood. Their quality is questionable according to European standards but the Syrians say that they do the job so why pay €50,000 for something that you can buy for US$6,000? At first sight this makes sense, but realistically the use of bad machines limits the export possibilities to Europe and China dramatically.
Tanning machines are practically all imported and one can see a huge collection of machines that are 40-50 years old, practically antiques, producing leather that can be expected from this kind of machinery. Surprisingly the tanners in Damascus continue to buy these old, used machines which are not even reconditioned but simply painted over and which have the rubber and blade rollers replaced where necessary.
These machines cost the tanners a fortune in maintenance, but again they are cheap. A new Iranian shaving machine goes for US$15,000 and a used Flamar shaving machine can be bought at less than e7,000, and quality wise both in terms of construction and in terms of production these machines live up to their purchase price, costing the tanners constant maintenance and loss of production time.
If the mechanical operation leaves something to desire, the chemical leather quality itself is quite good and that is thanks to the family tradition that transfers the ‘secrets’ of the job from father to son, and some of the tanners being schooled in France and Italy. All together this is a sizeable and interesting industry which, however, needs to modernise and exit the ‘cheap’ mentality and become quality conscious both for the machines they buy and for the leather they produce.

Sam Setter
samsetter@limeblast.org