Chronicle Editor
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
GWERU-BASED cement manufacturing company Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC) has completed constructing its brick and tile manufacturing plant.
Speaking during a tour of the plant by Industry and Commerce Minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu last week, SZCC managing director Mr Wang Yong said the plant was now undergoing a test run. Mr Wang said the plant will have the capacity to produce 60 million bricks per annum. Mr Wang said the first phase of the project gobbled $10 million.
“Our brick manufacturing plant is now complete. We are now doing a test run of the plant. We have brought in world class machinery for the brick moulding. We also brought the latest technology with an automatic process. It’s a modern factory. We will be producing products such as face bricks that are currently being imported. Initially we will be producing 60 million bricks per annum but when we complete the entire project we will be producing 100 million tonnes every year. This project when complete costs USD$10 million,” he said.
Sino Cement Zimbabwe is operating at 90 percent capacity and is looking forward to scaling up production. The company has a workforce of close to 400. The company is producing 300 000 tonnes of cement annually against a national demand of approximately 1,1 million tonnes.
Like any other manufacturing company in the country, Mr Wang said Sino Zimbabwe Cement has also been adversely affected by foreign currency shortages. However, he said the company was getting 85 percent of its raw material locally.
Sino-Zimbabwe Cement was co-built in the 1990s by China National Building Material Company (CNBM) and Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) in line with China’s “Going Out” strategy. With the whole line of state-of the-art equipment imported from China, SZCC, as one of the three cement manufacturers in the country, has an annual production capacity of 300 000 tonnes of cement.
The Chinese Government through its parastatals, China National Materials Group Corporation (Sinoma) and of China Building Materials Corporation (CBMC) which owns a controlling stake in Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC) had committed to set up $50 million brick and tile plant construction. The first phase of the project, is a joint venture with the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe.
The brick moulding plant will meet the international standards and will be producing among other products face bricks that are being imported from neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.
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