Hwange gets more equipment

Coal mining giant acquires equipment worth $18,2 million

From Fairness Moyana in Hwange
THE delivery of a second consignment of equipment worth $18,2 million at Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) has started with the latest acquisition from India under the BEML facility now at the giant coal mining concern.

The equipment, which consists of excavators, front end loaders, graders, water bowsers, dozers, drill rigs and a wheel changer, is set to boost mining operations at the coal mine, which has been struggling with ageing equipment amid competition from new players.

The first consignment worth $31 million was delivered last month from Belarus under the Belaz facility.

It comprised of 130t dump trucks, excavators and graders amongst others.The delivered machinery is being assembled at the mine site. HCCL managing director Thomas Makore yesterday said the new equipment was expected to be operational by the end of this month.

He added that the development was envisaged to boost production levels to 450,000t per month from the current 300,000t.

“The equipment from India started arriving last week with the rest expected within the next 10 days. As you may be aware we’ve been using aged and obsolete machinery so this process of re-equipping and re-tooling will allow us to move from the current 300,000t per month to 450,000t per month,” said Makore.

He said recapitalisation initiatives were also in the pipeline and employees were being trained to ensure that their attitude was in line with the company’s turnaround strategy so as to maximise production.

“In order to change the mindset and culture of our staff we’ve started a productivity and efficiency improvement initiative where we’re educating our staff on improving ways of working. We’ve also committed ourselves to paying a little bit of money not the full or half salary to cushion them,” said Makore.

The workers are owed 15 months salaries amounting to about $19 million.

Since the beginning of the year, the company has been giving its workers allowances of between $100-$200 in an effort to cushion them from a harsh economy.

Makore said part of the turnaround strategies included the divisionalisation of operations which allows the company to organise itself into strategic business units such as medical and estate departments as stand-alone entities.

HCCL has also adopted survival strategies in the face of growing competition through market segmentation, which involves establishing direct relationships with customers, revising the cost structure that informs product pricing and diversifying the customer base beyond the regional market to exporting offshore to India and Europe.

The government is yet to award the company with more coal concessions after it emerged that the reserves in its mines were fast depleting.