Online Reporter
The developments taking place at Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Disco) in Manhize area near Mvuma town confirm that the country’s steel industry is back on track.
The company, which started producing pig iron and steel billets last year, is now producing steel bars. This is a major development in the country’s efforts to revive the steel industry, which is critical for Zimbabwe’s modernisation and industrialisation.
The country has been spending an estimated US$1 billion annually on steel imports, which are mainly steel bars, which are now being produced by Disco. The company is producing about 9 000 tonnes of steel products per month and has a target to produce 600 000 tonnes a year.
“We are now producing 16mm, 20mm and 25mm bars, which are mostly used in the construction industry,” said the company’s public relations manager, Mr Joseph Shoko. He said the company was committed to meeting local demand for steel products thereby completely substituting imports.
The company has already created 2 000 jobs and has a potential to create 10 000 jobs when operating at full throttle. Most of the employees are locals from Manhize and surrounding areas. What is very encouraging about Disco is that it is not only substituting imports, but is also a leader in upholding high occupational health and safety standards, that has seen the steel producer recording zero fatalities since its inception.
The company, a subsidiary of Chinese global investment group, Tsingshan Holdings, is one of the Second Republic’s signature projects that are transforming livelihoods of communities. The national Social Security Authority (Nssa), said for the past four years that Disco has been in operation, it has not recorded a single death at the workplace.
Speaking after the tour of the giant steel plant, by experts and engineers that were attending the annual Nssa Engineers Workshop in Masvingo recently, Nssa acting general manager Dr Charles Shava, commended Disco for upholding high occupational health and safety standards. He said Disco, which has the potential to be the largest steel plant in Africa, has done well in terms of occupational health and safety.
”They have had only incidents where some workers have suffered some minor injuries, but I think overall, they have done very well because we are talking about a very big steel plant,” said Dr Shava.
He said Nssa was happy that Disco has a very good medical team on the ground, a confirmation that they are on top of the game and are able to deal with the issue of diseases. The company is producing 50MW of electricity using coal but has very limited pollution. The coal is emitting very little pollutants in the air. What is obtaining at Disco should be emulated by other companies so that we reduce fatalities at the workplace. We want to applaud Disco for not just creating thousands of jobs, but also ensuring that its employees work under a conducive working environment.
The company has invested a lot of money in occupational health and safety hence it has recorded zero fatalities since it started operating. Disco has demonstrated that it is possible to drastically reduce fatalities at the workplace and as already stated, other companies should learn from this giant steel producer.
Occupational health and safety should be a priority for all companies, if we are to reduce fatalities at the workplace. We want to once again applaud Disco for accelerating the revival of the local steel industry and saving the country the much needed forex by substituting imports.
