Delays in shipping equipment stall Sino Zim project

Published: 21 May 2018

WORK on the Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC)'s $50 million brick and tile project is expected to be complete by August this year after delays in procurement of equipment and key raw materials.

Managing director Mr Yong Wang said delays in shipping of key equipment from China has stalled the project but quickly explained that delivery was expected at the end of this month as the company pushes to kick-start operations by the end of August.

"The shipping of part of the equipment and materials was longer than we assumed but now 60 percent of the equipment is on its way. The investors have injected the capital for the project and currently we are 30 percent complete. I am confident that by August this year we would have completed the plant," he said.

"The rest of the equipment will be shipped at the end of June and we hope by the beginning of July everything will be there so that we can start to do the installation of the plant in time for the test run in August."

About 500 people are expected to be employed during the construction stage of the project whose plant will rely on quarry shell and coal ash for raw materials, which are by-products of SZCC operations. The firm has said it was targeting exporting the bricks some of which are used to line blast furnaces in the region especially South Africa.

The brick and tile project was initially set to be operational in 2015 after Sinoma had committed to inject $20 million under the first phase of the three-phased project with production expected to peak at 100 million of bricks and tiles per year. The slowdown of the Chinese economy coupled with the global financial crisis has resulted in some joint venture projects, which the Asian giant had pledged to undertake, being stalled. China recorded a pronounced deceleration in growth in 2015 with growth rate of 6,9 percent that was seen as weakest in 25 years.
- zimpapers

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