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Ngonidzashe Chiutsi Business Correspondent
PRETORIA Portland Cement Zimbabwe is set to invest at least $6,4 million on its Bulawayo and Colleen Bawn plants in a bid to increase cement production and improve services to its clients, an official has said. In an interview last week the cement manufacturing company managing director, Mr Njombo Lekula, said the company was still confident of its operations in Matabeleland hence the investment.
PPC is also constructing a $75 million cement plant with a capacity to produce 680 000 tonnes annually.
The project, expected to come online in the first quarter next year, had raised fears that PPC wanted to close its southern region operation since most of the market was in the north.
“As PPC, in Matabeleland we are here to stay. We will be spending about $6,4 million for our two factories in the region, that is, Bulawayo and Colleen Bawn factories. We have no intention of moving away from Matabeleland,” he said.
He said in the last three years, they had injected more than $25 million in the Matabeleland region.
“We have spent a lot on our facilities and all of that is aimed at improving our productivity, service and efficiency. As PPC in Matabeleland we did some work in Bulawayo and at our plants in Colleen Bawn where we produce clinker. For the past three years we have spent about $15,5 million for Bulawayo plant and at Colleen Bawn alone we have spent about $11,6 million,” said Mr Lekula.
He said the construction of the Harare cement mill was well on course and they were injecting about $75 million into the project.
“We are spending about $75 million on our Harare mill this year and we are expecting to commission it in the first quarter of 2016,” said Mr Lekula.
The official, however, said PPC’s export market had been hit by low demand due to a number of reasons, chief among them, the bad weather.
“We are exporting regularly although our exports dropped drastically at the beginning of this year and the first quarter has been the worst since two years ago and this was affected by the weather and also by the fact that our neighbouring countries are feeling the pinch of the strengthening dollar.
I would say our exports are down by about 40 percent,” he said.
Mr Lekula, however, said the influx of imports that had threatened the viability of the local industry were now a thing of the past.
“On imports, the Government has reacted and we very much appreciate. The Government has stepped in and there is no protection but there is proper regulation of importation and there are some people that are issued import licence which we are quite happy because it regulates the market and the business. They pay the due taxes and that makes the playing field level,” said the official.
The country had witnessed an influx of imported cement from South Africa and Botswana, depressing the local market.
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