Africa Chrome Field duty suspension extended

Farirai Machivenyika, Senior Reporter

The Government has extended the two-year duty-free fuel import facility for Africa Chrome Fields (ACF) for its energy projects that was supposed to end on December 31 last year to December 31, 2026.

This is contained in Statutory Instrument 6 of 2025 cited as the Customs and Excise (Suspension) (Amendment) Regulations, 2025 announced by Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube in an Extraordinary Government Gazette published this week in terms of the Customs and Excise Act.

The initial two-year period ran from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024 but will now end on December 31 next year following the gazetting of the extension.

“It is hereby notified that the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion has in terms of Section 235 as read with Section 120 of the Customs and Excise Act made the following regulations.

“The Customs and Excise Suspension Regulations, 2003, published in SI 257 of 2003 are amended in section 9 B as follows- in subsection 2 by the deletion of the words ‘1st January 2023 to 21st January 2024 and substitution with the words 1st January 2025 to 21st January 2026’; approved beneficiary of power generation projects eligible for suspension of duty,” read the statutory instrument.

The facility will ringfence 13,95 million litres of diesel that the company can import duty-free.

ACF, which was granted national project status in 2016 and uses the diesel to power its electric arc furnaces at its smelting plant.

The firm is a leading chrome mining company in Zimbabwe and last year announced ambitious expansion plans as it seeks to gain up to 25 percent global market share for high-grade chrome concentrate by the end of 2026.

“Our goal is to position ACF as a major player in the global chrome industry, while setting Zimbabwe apart as the home of high-quality chrome concentrate, and helping to build its reputation for its resource capabilities,” said Mr Zunaid Moti, ACF Chairman and Country Representative said then.

ACF currently operates six spiral wash plants across the Midlands Province in the Ngezi, Lalapanzi, and Chinyikwa areas.

The company’s plants produce an average of 30,000 tonnes of high-grade chromium concentrate each month, which is used in the production of ferroalloy for high-grade stainless steels.

Its operations contributed over US$40 million in revenue to Zimbabwe’s fiscus in 2024 alone.