adminoperations and setting up a new plant in Harare to be commissioned next month.
Hume Pipe is the sole manufacturer of precast concrete products in Zimbabwe and the sub region.
The new plant is to be funded by the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank. It is designed to improve the quality of the company’s products.
The chairman, Mr Wilson Manase, told Herald Business the new equipment has already been shipped into the country and engineers were on site at what used to be Fort Concrete premises along Seke Road.
“The total investment on the project is US$8 million,” said Mr Manase. “This plant will be the third for Hume Pipe, following two others in Harare and Bulawayo. We will now be able to produce products bigger in diameter up to a maximum of 2 500mm which will be ideal for sewer pipes and culverts.
“We realised that with the cholera epidemic which took its toll in 2008, there was need to improve on the infrastructure because of the influx of people into urban areas without a corresponding enlargement of the already stretched existing infrastructure.”
He said the firm works closely with local authorities around the country and was committed to meeting their (particular) requirements. This had resulted in a massive rollout programme demanding the expansion of the national pipe network.
Mr Manase said the company currently employs 150 and expects the number to treble once the new plant is on stream, as it will also incorporate brick moulding and inter-locking pavers.
Besides the local market, Hume Pipe is a dominant player in the region and exports its products to various companies within the Southern African Development Community area where demand continues to grow.
Mr Manase said while most companies were hesitant to recapitalise their operations with a combined effect of the prevailing economic conditions in which banks were not readily providing loans and sanctions were having their effect on he economy, his company saw it fit to seek funding offshore to maintain its competitiveness.
“We are able to supply the local market adequately, and while the strength of our products once put in the ground would ordinarily last 50 years and beyond, with this new plant, we should be able to multiply this life expectancy of each pipe for certain diameters by putting plastic liners.” Mr Manase said his company was working closely with the Harare City Council’s water section and would soon embark on an environmental awareness campaign for residents not to damage sewer pipes or throw objects in sewer reticulation pipes and generally to manage the environmental issues that affect the well-being of residents.
He announced the company had donated towards a computerised leak detection system expected to improve the management of the city’s water reticulation system. The company’s managing director, Mr Carlo Dal-Col, said the new plant would help his organisation to catch up with the latest trends in technology.
“We are committed to perfect workmanship and there is no room for rejects,” he said.
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