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Tawanda Musarurwa
Listed cables manufacturer, Cafca Limited, recorded an up tick in both export and local volumes for the first quarter to December 31, 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic having generally slowed down economic activity in most of its markets.
The group’s conductor output rose to 615 tonnes during the quarter to December 2020, from 426 tonnes in the prior comparable period.
Management attributed the 25 percent increase in export volumes to “consignment stock initiatives and Covid-19 implications on logistics”.
The group has a strong export orientation. Cafca’s primary market is Southern and Central Africa, although it has an export footprint that extends to parts of Europe, including Russia.
Cafca’s exports have maintained an upward trajectory, with volumes having risen to 207 tonnes in the nine months to June 30, 2020, a 45 percent gain from 143 tonnes in the prior comparable period.
Cafca said local volumes increased by 47 percent year-on-year “with utilities, mining and retail being very buoyant”.
Even though during the quarter under review, Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 necessitated lockdown had been lifted, most sectors that helped drive Cafca’s business had been operating as essential services during the lockdown, namely the mining and retail segments.
And over the course of 2020, Cafca’s production was largely uninterrupted as the company operated as an essential service.
“Efforts continue to maintain finished goods stock levels which are currently at 738 tonnes as a strategy against logistical and currency instability and to ensure we meet local market requirements,” said the group’s company secretary Caroline Kangara in a trading update.
“We have no reason to believe that the next 3 months will be any different to this quarter’s volumes.
“Accordingly we are forecasting a six monthly volume that will be well above the previous year’s six monthly volume.”
The group manufactures and supplies cable and allied products for the transmission and distribution of electrical energy and telecommunication.
Online Reporter