HCCL’s DRC market safe

The Chinese wanted to control coal imports to the vast Central African country.
Hwange Colliery is exporting           over 62 000 tonnes of coal every month into the region, including DRC, Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.
Mr Moyo said the company had successfully engaged the DRC government over the issue.
“DRC companies were preferring coke from China ahead of our product. We have engaged the government with the assistance of their ambassador to Zimbabwe to regain our share in that market,” he said.
“Our DRC market is now safe           and secure and we hope to be            major suppliers of coal in that country.”
Apart from regional markets HCCL has also secured export markets in India where it expects to ship between 50 000 and 60 000 tonnes of the commodity per month.
There is a shortfall of 50 million tonnes of coal in the Asian                  market which HCCL wants to fully exploit.
HCCL, which is sitting on two billion tonnes reserves of coal, recently secured a $20 million loan facility from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
The colliery company requires about $90 million for new machinery for both underground and open cast operations.
In 2010 the company produced 2,4 million tonnes of coal up from 1,6 million in 2009. — New Ziana.