BULAWAYO — South Africa’s Pretoria Portland Cements (PPC) says it has recorded modest volume growth in Zimbabwe over the past year while construction of its $80 million cement plant in Harare has started.
In a pre-close operational update for the period October 2013 to July 2014, Bheki Sibiya, chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed cement and lime producer said Zimbabwe was among the few of its markets which have done well in the group’s operations across the continent.
“The Zimbabwe market recorded modest volume growth while the Botswana market volumes and prices declined. Group export volumes into the rest of Africa have shown good growth, particularly out of the Western Cape into the Democratic Republic of Congo, where we are starting to establish a market while we build our plant,” Sibiya said. He added construction work at the Harare mill, which is expected to be commissioned in 2016, has started. The group is also constructing cement plants in Rwanda, Ethiopia and the DRC.
The Harare plant is set to give the company competitive advantage in its main market. PPC has cement manufacturing plants at Cement Side in Bulawayo and Coleen Bawn in Matabeleland South, but the bulk of its market is in Harare.
PPC Zimbabwe managing director Lekula Njombo said the company had invested about $25 million at its clinker plant in Collen Bawn near Gwanda to improve efficiency and reliability of the factory.
“We recently acquired a replacement loco to improve our loading efficiency; we will be upgrading our crushing plant in the next year and some dust abatement equipment,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s cement companies have a combined annual capacity of 1,6 million tonnes, with Larfage and Sino Cement producing 400 000 and 250 000 tonnes.
Commenting on limestone deposits in Collen Bawn, he said: “Collen Bawn has adequate limestone to support our future developments for now. The reclaiming of limestone has been done with due care to ensure sustainability of the operation.” — Online
