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HARARE – Cabinet on Tuesday approved the takeover of ZiscoSteel’s coking coal production plant by ZimCoke private limited, paving way for the resumption of operations which had ceased in 2008.
ZimCoke (Pvt) Ltd and ZiscoSteel signed an agreement of sale in 2017 but the deal was yet to take off.
As part of the deal, ZimCoke, a Mauritian firm, acquired the coke-making assets of ZiscoSteel, consisting of the plant and machinery, land and buildings and associated infrastructure of coal handling and rail wagons.
Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu said ZimCoke will be running the coke oven batteries at ZiscoSteel.
“This is an agreement that was signed in 2017 but needed to be fine tuned and we have gone through that and all issues that needed to be cleared have been cleared.
“It is an investment which will be worth $133 million, that is the capital injection, but it also involves ZimCoke taking over the ZiscoSteel debt owed to the German company KFW of $225 million so all in all it is an investment worth more than $350 million which we expect to create not less than 800 jobs,” he said.
“This will entail processing of coking coal for the purposes of exporting coke.”
At full production ZimCoke will manufacture half a million tonnes of coke per year.
The project also involves the rehabilitation of Redcliff water supply infrastructure, production of tar as well as the refurbishment of locomotives and wagons.
ZimCoke has indicated that it has already secured an off-take arrangement with Glencore, a multinational commodity trading and mining company headquartered in Switzerland.
Coking coal, also known as metallurgical coal, is used to create coke, one of the key irreplaceable inputs for the production of steel.
Coke is produced by heating coking coals in a coke oven in the absence of oxygen. – New Ziana
Bongani Ndlovu