adminLovemore Zigara and Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondents
GWERU-based cement manufacturer, Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC), has recorded a 10 percent increase in cement sales in the first half of the year.
Managing director, Wang Yong, told Business Chronicle the company was impressed with improved performance in the first half of the year.
“We’ve performed better than we did in the first half of last year which saw our cement sales growing by 10 percent compared to three percent recorded last year,” he said.
Yong said for the past three years demand for cement hit the one million tonnes mark for the three commodity producers in the country.
“Cement demand also increased by two percent in the same period but this year we might surpass it,” he said.
Sino commands about 25 percent of the market share with the remainder being controlled by Pretoria Portland Cement and Lafarge.
As part of efforts to stimulate sales, the company has drastically reduced its prices to $8 per 50 kg bag from about $10 per 50kg bag for its customers in Gweru.
SZCC, a joint venture between the Zimbabwean and Chinese governments, is almost completing the second phase of its expansion, which is expected to gobble $4 million.
The commissioning of new cement packers, dispatching machine as well as two cement silos, which is part of the second phase of the refurbishment and expansion process, will be done at the end of October.
Meanwhile, SZCC has issued scholarship to four students to go and study Chemical Engineering, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at the University of Jinan in China.
This brings the total number of students on scholarship in China to 10 after the first and second groups left the country in September last year and March this year respectively to pursue studies in technical and practical programmes.
Speaking at a farewell dinner held at the cement manufacturing company’s premises in Gweru, Yong said technical and practical programmes were relevant in Zimbabwe considering that the country was on its economic recovery path.
“We’ve realised that most technical and practical programmes have become more relevant in Zimbabwe because the country is still developing. We’ve seen that most students are wandering and failing to secure jobs because their programmes are not on demand in the country,” he said.
The students were drawn from country’s State universities.
Each of the country’s State universities submits five students who will undergo a psychometric test before they are considered for scholarships to study in China.
derick.khumalo