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Michael Magoronga Midlands Correspondent
Lancashire Steel has received a US$2 million boost from Government in a move that saw the company buying raw materials with the hope of resuming operations within a few days.
The company, which stopped operating close to a decade ago following the closure of its major raw material supplier, Ziscosteel, received the loan facility from Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s subsidiary, Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation (Private) Limited (ZAMCO).
Speaking during the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce familiarisation tour recently, the company’s general manager Mr Ezekiel Machingambi said the company was expected to receive its first truckload of raw materials from South Africa this week.
“We received a US$2 million loan facility from ZAMCO and we expect to receive our first truckload of raw materials this week,” he said. “We ordered semi-processed products from South Africa, then we beneficiate them in our wire mill section.”
Mr Machingambi said the revival of the company, which will be done in stages, will start with wire plant before resuscitation of other plants in the long run.
“We are obviously going to start with the wire mill plant in the initial stages before we then bring back the rod mill,” he said.
“Going forward, we are looking forward to the operations commencing earnestly after we have to import the raw materials.”
Mr Machingambi said Lancashire Steel had to import raw materials because locally there were no billet sizes that fit in the company’s machinery.
“We need a reliable supply of billets and we have not been very lucky in terms of the size of billets that we require, so we will be importing rods and semi-processed galvanised wire from South Africa,” he said.
Lancashire Steel’s revamping process is set to benefit about 100 workers in the initial stages, with the firm employing about 520 workers when operating at full capacity.
The chairperson of the parliamentary committee Mr Joshua Sacco said the state of industries in the Midlands Province was touching, and they were going to make recommendations on the need to resuscitate them.
“What I have noted is that these companies are interlinked, one company cannot survive without the other,” he said.
“We are, therefore, going to make strong recommendations that the companies be revived.”
Mr Sacco said the revival of Lancashire was a step in the right direction.
“At least if we start with the revival of Lancashire, we are assured that some more companies that rely on it for raw materials are going to benefit,” he said.
“We have Haggie Rand that solely relies on the wire from this company, so we are sure that we are headed in the right direction.”
The parliamentary portfolio committee also visited Sable Chemicals and Ziscosteel, among other companies.
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