PPC Zimbabwe has started preparatory work towards the construction of clinker plant and cement grinding mill this year, managing director Mr Njombo Lekula has said.
"The project feasibility study for the clinker plant in Mashonaland Central is nearing completion, whilst public hearings for the Environment Impact Assessment have been concluded in Harare."
"Work has (also) commenced in establishing the access road and services to the new cement grinding facility in Harare," said Mr Lekula.
PPC, the country's largest cement company with an annual capacity of 1,2 million tonnes intends to double its capacity by building a clinker plant in Mt Darwin and cement crushing mills in Harare and Tete at an estimated cost of about $200 million.
Cement is produced in two phases with the first being the production of clinker from limestone. The second phase involves crushing of the clinker into cement powder. PPC group chief executive Mr Ketso Gordhan said last year the company will also have three more plants coming this year in the DR Congo and Ethiopia and Rwanda.He said the company's capital expenditure budget for the year was about R2,7 billion. The new plants will enable the company to achieve its target of generating 40 percent of its revenue from outside South Africa by in the next four years, he said.
PPC Zimbabwe is targeting the Harare region market while the milling plant in Mozambique will target the Tete region.
About 250 direct jobs would be created with additional 100 supporting jobs plus many more downstream, the company said.
At the Bulawayo plant, Mr Lekula said the company had completed the commissioning of the first phase of the modernisation of packaging and dispatch facility which includes the installation of two palletiser units and a shrink-wrap machine.
The new facility is served by the new factory warehouse and a dispatch office and weigh-bridges.
"With effect from the beginning of February we have started dispatching our bagged product in three options the U (unitised), UP Unitised on a pallet and UPC which is a plastic covered option," said Mr Lekula.
"We are pleased to have seen a marked improvement in the queuing and customer service."
The final phase involves the construction of a new bulk loading facility and is underway, he added. Between October and January this year, PPC sales volumes declined 0,5 percent year on year. The domestic sales for January and February are 2 percent lower than last year.
"This period of the year, low sales are expected as the rains affect the construction industry. Considering the exceptional rain season that Zimbabwe has experienced so far, the above performance is considered exceptional and encouraging."
Going forward, PPC expects demand for cement in the retail to be strong and a positive impact is expected due to the favourable rain season that is likely to boost the crop this year. There are several enquiries and prospects of infrastructure projects that are underway and indications are that a large component of those have secured the funding and are at various stages of implementation. PPC traded at $2,70 on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange yesterday and R29,72 on JSE.
- The Herald
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