By Tapiwanashe Mangwiro.
Harare – (News of The South) – After being accorded National Status Project in 2019, the Lafarge Expansion Project has finally roared into life after the company held it’s ground breaking ceremony at their production site in Manresa today.
The project will be done in three phases to the tune of US$25m by the year-end 2022. US$2.2m will be needed for the first phase of a Dry Mortar Mix (DMX) plant, which will increase capacity by 614% from 7000 to 50000 tons per year. Construction and commissioning of the plant will be done in six months as the company seeks to increase it’s market share.
Stannic bank will be the financier of the project, with letters of credit also being issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Lafarge hopes to compete with other manufacturers not only in the country but also in the region, as we would also want to export some of the DMX into the region, CEO Precious Nyika said.
Target is to install a full manufacturing plant from raw material preparation to mixing, packing palletizing and shrink wrapping. This is aimed at achieving import substitution through matched quality, as well as upskilling staff through improved technologies and positive impact downstream through more retail franchises.
The automated system to be used in this plant is to be sourced from Turkey and will see the product range grow to include tile fixing compounds, tile adhesives, tile grout, bonding liquid and cement based paint among other products.
The whole project is going to double production to 800 000 tonnes per annum as the current installed capacity is currently at 400 000 tonnes per annum. Although this lags behind some of the country’s top cement producers such as PPC which have an installed capacity of 1.7 million tonnes per year, the investment is noble and will definitely be a game changer for the company going forward.
In an interview with FinX Nyika said the company is still exploring for more lime deposits especially in Mashonaland West as was said by her predecessor, and this will be part of their growth strategy as the company is also going to expand their agricultural lime plant in the last phase of this $25m expansion project.
The company also hopes to remain profitable after it swung to profitability in the first six months of 2019 as it recorded Z$2.9m profit from a loss position of Z$1.8m 2018. This will be helped by the fact that the company will not pay taxes and duty for capital requirements for the project as well as some temporary imports meant for the project.
Hope is that the project will help the country to achieve it’s Vision 2030 of an upper-middle class economy.
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