Online Reporter
THE first phase of the $1,5 billion Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Disco) project in Manhize, Midlands Province, started production in June 2024.
Under that phase, the factory targets to produce 600 000 tonnes of steel products annually, doubling the output in the second phase until it achieves five million tonnes in the final one. It has potential to directly employ 25 000 people when fully operational and up to 150 000 indirectly.
Then Manhize will be its own city, built on a foundation of steel. It recently secured special economic zone status, a designation, which will enable Disco to scale very fast, given the incentives firms with that designation enjoy.
As we report elsewhere in this edition, Dinson Group chief executive officer, Mr Benson Xu told the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere, who led a media team on a visit to the giant facility recently, that the company generated $100 million in steel sales in the six months to June.
“We had a ground-breaking ceremony in October 2022, led by His Excellency President Mnangagwa,” he said.
“Our team has been working tirelessly, and in June 2024, we achieved our first production of steel billets. In the first half of the year, we made $100 million in sales, saving the country revenue on steel imports.”
Just 12 months after first production, the $1,5 billion plant raked in $100 million, not in annual sales but half-year sales; and it is only in its first phase!
We think that is a remarkable performance for a one-year-old. It is firmly on its way to generating at least $100 million more in the six months to December, given that the plant is still under construction thus will likely have entered its second phase, diversified its product range and boosted exports by then.
At its full spate of five million tonnes per year, Manhize should be generating up to $1,6 billion yearly, just more than the sum invested. It is not as simple as that, we appreciate, but it essentially is.
This tells us the sort of investment proposition that our country is, particularly at this stage when it is industrialising towards Vision 2030 and beyond. The Manhize project has all the potential to be a key investment in the Tsingshan Group, the globe’s biggest producer of stainless steel which owns it.
This is the kind of investment that our country needs; investments that put our country on the world map.
We thus, urge other investors to pour their money into this economy, helping it develop. With authorities as supportive as ever, the investors are guaranteed of success as Manhize is proving.
