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Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) is witnessing a steady turnaround in its recapitalisation efforts anchored by improved business from a flourishing mining industry and strategic partnerships and is at an advanced stage of acquiring 3 000 wagons from Transnet in South Africa in anticipation of continued growth.
The giant railway company has also cleared its salary arrears and has started remunerating its employees in foreign currency, an indication that it is coming out of the financial doldrums that have characterised its many false starts.
In an interview with Sunday News, NRZ public relations manager Mr Andrew Kunambura said the growth in the mining sector was driving their performance as they operate on derived demand. He said there were eight major projects coming up in the lithium sector that were expected to spur business for the company.
“Currently the major developments are in the chrome ore sector and new opportunities like lithium. There is a lot of growth around lithium which we are anticipating will push our growth as well. We have the Kuvimba Mining House with one of the biggest lithium deposits. As we speak, they have more than 600 000 metric tons of mined lithium in Zvishavane.
“They have been issued with a licence to move 2,5 million metric tons in the next 24 months and they have started moving lithium to the rail loading point in Zvishavane and to date we have 3 000 tons on the ground waiting to be loaded into the wagons. What is being done now is the right sizing of the lithium rocks and we anticipate loading to start at the end of July,” said Mr Kunambura.
He said there were lithium mining deposits around Gwanda at Mpeta Mine and they were going to be loading jointly with Bulawayo Beitbridge Railway (BBR) and ZFM moving to Maputo port, from Gwanda to Beitbridge, Rutenga, Chikwakwala then Maputo.
“That is a very big mine and we anticipate to start end of September at rates of 5 000 tons, 10 000 and then eventually 20 000 tons per month. In addition to that we also have Arcadia Mine in Goromonzi.
The mine is already exporting but they are currently using road transport. We are currently working with their agent to construct a loading spare at Goromonzi so that we can start loading lithium into rail wagons.
We also have the Bikita Minerals with lithium. We are working with one partner to load at Triangle, they will do the shuttle from the Bikita Minerals to Triangle then we load into rail wagons and we move to Maputo,” said Mr Kunambura.
He said there were various deals that were coming up in Odyssey, Buhera, Kamativi as well as Zulu Lithium in Fort Rixon.
NRZ is also playing a significant role in terms of the movement of coal to Zambia, DRC and of late Tanzania from the country’s coal fields. It is also moving chrome ore from Zimasco.
“Zimasco recently increased their furnaces from three to six at Kwekwe and as NRZ we play a role on two fronts. Firstly, by moving the chrome ore from the various tributaries to the plant in Kwekwe. After smelting, we move the ferrochrome to Maputo.
We also have AfroChin, which we are working with. We are moving its chrome to Selous for smelting and we are finalising a deal now to move their ferrochrome on a continuous basis to Beira port. We also have various Chinese companies who are also slowly coming to rail and we will be moving their ferrochrome to Maputo port,” said Mr Kunambura.
While the mining industry has played a significance role in providing NRZ with business, the entity has also tapped into the regional market, harnessing various opportunities from within the region.
“We have seen new giants like ArcelorMittal from South Africa now picking products from us. So, we started moving coal and coke for that company in November last year from Hwange. We are doing this together with Botswana Railways to a point called Ramotswa at the border between Botswana and South Africa then from there they move by road to their plant.
“We are also moving material for a company called Trells through BBR and TFR to their Newcastle plant in South Africa. In total we are talking about an upwards of about 65 000 metric tons of business which ArcelorMittal is giving our country Zimbabwe in terms of coke,” said Mr Kunambura.
In order to harness opportunities and meet the demand thereof, the entity has implemented several initiatives which include joint marketing with other railway systems as well as securing additional resources.
“We are jointly marketing with other players like BBR and Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) in English (Mozambique Ports and Railways) so that we pull resources together and lift our volumes.
We are also working with Minerals Marketing Company of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) and their appointed agent who can influence decisions at the procurement level. They can also influence if goods should go to road or to rail. We have also started getting contacts at Kuvimba Mining House so we are excited by the progress we are making.
“Over and above that we have gone into the region to get additional capacity in the form of wagons. We have got into discussions with Transnet and they are at a very high level to try and get us up to 3 000 wagons so that we service opportunities,” said Mr Kunambura.
He said what this means was that the revival of NRZ which was much talked about was well underway as evidenced by their ability to clear the salary backlog.
“You might recall that our General Manager Ms Respina Zinyanduko indicated that we gave our employees a US$200 allowance to cushion them from the economic shocks which was paid uniformly across the board. We have also introduced on their monthly salaries, a USD component and that is an indicator of the company’s revival.
“They are not mega salaries but we are managing to keep our workers remunerated which is very encouraging. You will note that NRZ is a very highly unionised organisation and if you go back in history, NRZ was known for industrial action but in the past two years or so we have not had pronounced strikes and that is a clear indication that there is stability,” said Mr Kunambura. — @nyeve14
Bongani Ndlovu