SinoZim Cement bricks and tiles plant 70pc complete

28 Aug, 2018 - 10:08 0 Views
SinoZim Cement bricks and tiles plant 70pc complete

eBusiness Weekly

Munyaradzi Musiiwa
GWERU – Cement manufacturing company Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company’s its brick and tile manufacturing plant, which was once stalled in 2016 due to the slowdown of the Chinese economy coupled with the global financial crisis, is now 70 percent complete and is expected to be commissioned in October.

The Chinese government through its parastatals, China National Materials Group Corporation (Sinoma) and of China Building Materials Corporation (CBMC) which owns a controlling stake in Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC) had committed to set up $50 million brick and tile plant construction.

The first phase of the project, which is a joint venture with the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ), is expected to be completed in the next two months.

In an interview, SZCC managing director, Mr Wang Yong said the brick moulding plant will meet the international standards and will be producing among other products face bricks that are being imported from neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.

Mr Yong said the first phase of the project will gobble $10 million.

“Our brick manufacturing plant is now 70 percent complete. We expect it to be 100 percent complete in the next two months after which we will then to a test run.

We have brought in world class machinery for the brick moulding. We are also bringing in latest technology. It’s a modern factory. We will be producing products such as face brick that are currently being imported.

The plant is expected to start operating by October,” he said.

Mr Yong said the plant will have the capacity to produce 60 million bricks per annum.

“Initially we will be producing 60 million bricks per annum but when we complete the entire project we will be producing 100 million tonnes every year,” he said.

Sino Cement Zimbabwe is operating at 90 percent and are looking forward to scaling up production. The company has a workforce of close to 400. The company is producing 300 000 tonnes of cement annually against a national demand of approximately 1, 1 million tonnes.

Like any other manufacturing company in the country, Mr Yong said Sino Zimbabwe Cement has also been adversely affected by foreign currency shortages.

He said the company was getting 85 percent of its raw material locally.

Sino-Zimbabwe Cement was co-built in the 1990s by China National Building Material Company (CNBM) and Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) in line with China’s “Going Out” strategy. With the whole line of state-of the-art equipment imported from China, SZCC, as one of the three cement manufacturers in the country, has an annual production capacity of 300 000 tons of Portland Cement (PC).

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