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Livingstone Marufu —
Zimbabwe’s largest fertiliser and chemicals manufacturing company, Chemplex Corporation Limited, has invested US$27,5 million in its subsidiaries and associate companies ahead of the 2016/2017 summer cropping season. In the past six months, Chemplex’s wholly-owned subsidiaries ZimPhos and Dorowa Minerals — which were under United States government sanctions — have improved capacity from 10 percent to the current 90 percent after the injection of fresh capital.
Chemplex CEO Mr Misheck Kachere told The Sunday Mail Business that the bulk of the investment was for refurbishment of plants at ZimPhos, Dorowa and the Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company, while the remainder was for operations.
“We have already spent US$5 million in the refurbishment of plants at Dorowa to boost fertiliser production ahead of the 2016/2017 summer cropping season. This has seen our company operating close to 100 percent at Dorowa.
“Everything is now in place to roll out a US$7,5 million facility for ZimPhos to increase fertiliser manufacturing at the company which was close to 10 percent capacity not so long ago. We are going to raise the stakes by spending US$15 million on ZFC in a bid to modernise the plants as we move towards supplying the required fertiliser in the country,” said Mr Kachere.
Chemplex has a 50 percent stake in ZFC, which expects to increase monthly production to 10 000 tonnes after the investment.
The company will be prioritising farmers under Government’s Command Agriculture Programme.
“As I speak right now, we have over 100 000 tonnes in various companies; ZFC has over 25 000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and Windmill has the same number of tonnes.
“The major reason why people think that we have some shortages is that we are all waiting to disburse fertiliser for the command agriculture farmers. Once the inputs for that scheme are disbursed, all other farmers will get whatever they need.
“We don’t have a problem on top dressing imports (AN fertiliser) because generally we don’t have enough capacity to meet the local demand. Now that we are now off the sanctions list, Sasol can supply us with AN fertiliser,” explained Mr Kachere.
Chemplex mines and also beneficiates phosphate rock which is used in the manufacture of fertilisers. It also manufactures sulphuric acid which is critical in manufacturing industrial chemicals. Increased capacity in industry has positively impacted on prices.
The price of compound D fertiliser has since declined from US$600 per tonne to US$500, while ammonium nitrate has dropped from US$650 to US$550 for the same quantity. Chemplex controls 70 percent of the fertiliser market.
The company also wholly owns Chemplex Marketing, Chemplex Animal & Public Health, GD Haulage and G&W Industrial Minerals, and has a 36 percent stake in Sable Chemicals.
Online Reporter