Chronicle Editor
Lovemore Zigara, Bsuiness Correspondent
GWERU-BASED cement manufacturer, Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company has failed to pay for packaging material as a result of foreign currency shortages affecting many companies.
The company is the third largest cement producer in the country, with a capacity to produce 400 000 tonnes per year.
Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC) managing director Mr Yong Wang said:
“We have been constrained lately because we do not have suppliers of cement bags locally and we have to import them from South Africa, Tanzania or Zambia.
“And with the prevailing shortage of foreign exchange, we have had challenges in accessing packaging materials.”
The central bank has pledged to prioritise foreign currency allocations to the manufacturing sector to enable the companies to import critical raw materials.
Mr Wang said given the rise in infrastructural development projects being undertaken in the country, demand for cement had increased sharply which means the consumption of packaging material has also increased.
He said the company also needed foreign currency to meet other financial obligations.
” For instance, some of our service providers who come and service our quality control machines want to be paid in forex and we now owe them huge amounts of money. What has worsened the situation is that some of them now demand payment upfront,” he said.
Last year, the cement manufacturer registered a remarkable increase in its sales volume due to housing projects across the country.
SZCC has prospects for a brighter year in 2018 on the back of the envisaged massive capital projects the Government plans to undertake.
Some of the Government’s capital expenditure projects underway or yet to take off include the dualisation of the Beitbridge- Chirundu Highway, refurbishment of the Hwange Power Station and construction of a new Parliament of Zimbabwe building.
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