A Chinese firm, Tsingshan Steel, is planning to invest about $1 billion in an integrated stainless steel manufacturing plant and power station in Zimbabwe, the Fingaz reported.
Benson Xu Kemin, the company's representative in the country, told C&M that the proposed stainless steel plant would be the biggest and most modern on the African continent.
"We (Tsingshan Steel) are committed to setting up the biggest and most modern stainless steel manufacturing plant on the African continent here in Zimbabwe," said Xu Kemin.
"We are committed as a company to put Zimbabwe on (the) world map given its abundant mineral resources. We therefore want to leverage on the availability of all the raw materials of stainless steel production.
"No country is as privileged as Zimbabwe to have these key raw materials all in one place and this has made Zimbabwe a potentially attractive investment destination for this stainless steel plant which together with the proposed power plant would cost about $1 billion," he said.
Given Zimbabwe's unreliable power supply, Xu Kemin said Tsingshan is ready to build a thermal power plant which would ensure the stainless steel manufacturing plant has a reliable and secure supply of electricity. He said any excess power from the power plant would be directed to the national grid to benefit the nation.
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority has licenced more than 12 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) around the country with a capacity to generate more than 5 000 MW of electricity with most of them not yet operational due to lack of resources.
Of these IPPs that have been licenced, six are already operational but these are small ones which produce electricity for their own consumption.
The model of constructing a metallurgical industrial zone where a stainless steel manufacturing plant and a power station are set up in the area near the mineral resource is already implemented in Indonisia where Tsingshan invested in setting up what is called the ‘Tsingshan Industrial Park' housing the smelting plant producing ferronickel next to the nickel ores resource and also having own power plant.
It is understood that Tsingshan Steel has already started engaging the government of Zimbabwe to guarantee the availability of all the mineral resources needed for the steel manufacturing plant to justify injection of capital in the setting up of the proposed steel manufacturing plant. Zimbabwe has not had a vibrant local steel industry following the closure of Ziscosteel (now NewZim Steel) in 2008.
Tsingsham Steel has already set up a subsidiary company in Zimbabwe called Afrochine Smelting with ferrochrome operations in Selous, a clear testimony that the company is serious about investing in the country.
The company has invested about $25 million in the first phase of Afrochine Smelting Plant which has two furnaces with a capacity to produce over 50 000 tons of high carbon ferrochrome per annum.
In the 1980s, Tsingshan Steel took the lead in entering the stainless steel production industry, becoming the first private owned stainless steel manufacturer in China. The company is now the most famous stainless steel enterprise with complete industrial chains and global networks. It has extended its operations from China to the world thus becoming a transnational corporation.
- fingaz
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