Displaying items by tag: Namibia

St Helena/Namibia: Ohorongo Cement has supplied 24,604t of cement towards the construction of the first-ever airport at St Helena island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It will continue to supply cement until the project is finished. The US$419m project is being developed by Basil Read and covers construction of the St Helena Airport and Permanent Wharf. Completion is planned by February 2016, according to local media.

Other projects the Namibian cement producer is supplying include the Husab Mine, Neckertal Dam, Walvis Bay Namport Harbour Project, an acid plant at Tsumeb and construction projects in Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The company enjoys infant industry protection awarded by the Namibian government in 2013 for eight years. It recently announced that the Development Bank of Namibia had increased its stake to 11.72%.

Namibia: The Oshana regional council has received 720 bags of cement from Ohorongo Cement, according to All Africa. The cement will be used for projects in the region.

The cement was delivered to the regional strategic warehouse at Uuwangula, some 10km outside Oshakati. Ompundja regional councillor Adolf Uunona, who spoke on behalf of Oshana governor Clemens Kashupuulwa, said that the cement would be distributed to 13 projects constructing water tank stands, halls and small bridges. Uunona praised Ohorongo Cement for investing more than US$1.12m by sending employees to Germany for training, facilitating education and job creation by supporting vocational training centres like the Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology and offering internships and job attachments.

"The government needs to be commended for having succeeded in maintaining a positive business climate that has been conductive for growing Ohorongo Cement. I have been reliably informed that the company contributes more than 1% towards the country's gross domestic product (GDP)," said Uunona. The councillor also thanked Ohorongo Cement for giving back to society, especially to the rural areas where the majority of Namibians live.

General manager of Ohorongo Cement, Rudolf Coetzee, said that as part of the silver jubilee independence celebrations, the company committed to donate 720 bags of cement to each of the 14 regions of Namibia. "Even though Ohorongo Cement is still an infant within a brand new industry, it diligently strives to continuously contribute towards public-private-partnerships and support government initiatives like Vision 2030, Growth at Home and NDP4," said Coetzee.

Namibia: Ohorongo Cement managing director Hans-Wilhelm Schütte said that the company has produced about 2.4Mt of cement for both local and foreign consumption in past five years, according to APANEWS. Cement production has grown since it first began at the site in December 2010.

Namibia: All Africa has reported that the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) plans to increase its stake in Ohorongo Cement, Namibia's only cement producer, in July 2015.

Foreign minority shareholders Development Bank of Southern Africa (which owns a 7.3% stake) and IDC of South Africa (which owns 20%) are in the process of selling their shares to Namibian institutional investors such as pension funds.

According to sources who preferred to stay anonymous, since the official announcement will only be made later this month, Germany's Schwenk Zement is the majority shareholder with a stake of around 60%. The official announcement is expected to be made on 29 July 2015 during the ground-breaking of the composite cement production plant and the inauguration of a training centre at Otavi, where the company's operations are based.

Namibia: Namibia's sole cement manufacturer, Ohorongo Cement, has said that 2015 has thus far seen tremendous results compared to all of its previous years. It started production in 2011.

Managing director Hans-Wilhelm Schutte attributed the much-improved performance to an increase in infrastructure projects by both the government and the private sector, as well as export inroads made in neighbouring countries. Schutte admitted that initial sales were 'extremely tough,' but was quick to add that the plant, which cost US$203m, has been running perfectly since comissioning and expects both local and regional sales to grow.

"Since 2011 we have improved significantly. Towards the second half of 2013 things really started picking up and 2014 saw us doing really well in terms of sales," said Schutte. He noted that large infrastructure projects such as NamPort's port expansion and the Neckartal dam have made notable contributions to Ohorongo's performance.

Namibia: Ohorongo Cement has donated US$84,450 of cement to the Namibian government. One truckload of cement will be donated to each of the country's 14 regions for the silver jubilee independence celebrations and the general development of Namibia.

According to the permanent secretary in the office of the prime minister and chairperson of the Independence Committee, Nangula Mbako, the cement will be handed to the governor of each region. The governors will be tasked in-house to identify a project within the region that they would like to use the cement for.

"The timing of this donation is perfect and the government is grateful to Ohorongo Cement for their contribution towards the development of Namibia and its people. It is a lot of cement," said Mbako.

"We want to make a difference and support our government to leave a lasting legacy for all Namibians," said Hans-Wilhelm Schütte, managing director of Ohorongo Cement. Besides the latest donation, Ohorongo Cement has invested US$548,928 as corporate social investment already since it began production, according to Schütte.

Namibia: Namibia's Ohorongo Cement plant plans to use blackthorn as biofuel for cement production. The company sources some 30% of its energy requirements from biofuel and plans to raise this figure to 80%.

"In the long term we will be very competitive," said Ohorongo Cement's chairman, Gerhard Hirth. Not having to rely on coal and oil imports, Ohorongo Cement will be able to keep energy costs down while making a positive contribution to the environment.

Hirth has invested US$340m in the 600,000t/yr capacity Ohorongo Cement plant. Some 500,000t/yr is sold on the domestic market and the rest is exported to Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Ohorongo Cement employs 330 people directly and 2500 indirectly.

Ohorongo Cement is currently under threat from a new market player. In order to side-step the 60% levy on cement imports into the country, a Chinese cement producer has recently begun operations at its own plant in Namibia. According to Hirth, Ohorongo Cement has lost more than Euro30m and is undertaking legal proceedings against its rival.

Namibia: The prosecutor general of Namibia has decided to prosecute Esmerelda Majiedt and five co-accused in the High Court for a scam which allegedly cost AfriSam Cement, the forerunner of the Ohorongo Cement factory, US$8m.

Majiedt is charged with corruption, with the state alleging that while she was employed at AfriSam Cement, she received payments in her personal capacity from customers of the company. During the hearing of a bail application by Majiedt in June 2011, it was alleged that suspect deliveries involving cement worth more than US$7.67m had been made to Afrisam customers without payments for such deliveries being reflected on the company's books. Majiedt claimed that other employees of the company knew her computer password and could have been responsible for the manipulation of Afrisam's accounting system.

Namibia: The Namibian attorney general has decided to refer a dispute about the legality of the import duty that is supposed to serve as an infant industry protection measure for cement manufacturer Ohorongo Cement to the Supreme Court. The settlement agreement was reached between lawyers representing Jack's Trading CC, a Chinese-owned cement importer, and the minister of finance and commissioner for customs and excise and was made a court order over objections from senior counsel Raymond Heathcote, representing Ohorongo Cement.

Heathcote tried in vain to persuade the court to first allow Ohorongo Cement to intervene in the latest case between Jack's Trading and the Minister of finance.

In light of the agreement Jack's Trading CC withdrew its latest urgent application in which it was asking the High Court to declare the cement import duty, as decided and announced by the minister of finance, invalid and unlawful and to set the import tax aside.

Namibia: Hans-Wilhelm Schutte, the managing director of Ohorongo Cement, has warned that the Namibian cement industry faces a serious challenge from foreign imports if existing import tariffs are lifted. Schutte made the statement in an affidavit filed with the High Court in Windhoek in the latest stage of a case in which a Chinese-owned cement importer wants to have the cement import duty declared invalid.

"The absence of infant industry protection will jeopardise (Ohorongo Cement's) entire operations in Namibia and may result in the need to retrench employees and down-scale (or totally halt) operations," Schutte has claimed.

Ohorongo Cement has filed an application with the High Court in which it is asking to be allowed to join the case in which a cement importer, Jack's Trading CC, has sued the Minister of Finance and the Commissioner of Customs and Excise in connection with the tariffs which have been levied on cement imports into Namibia since 27 July 2012.

According to Schutte, infant industry protection, which is allowed under the 2002 Southern African Customs Union agreement, was a precondition for the decision to establish Ohorongo Cement's plant in Namibia. Yet in his latest affidavit filed with the court, the majority member of Jack's Trading CC Yuequan Jack Huang, stated that he had signed a four-year contract to import 180,000t/yr of cement into Namibia.

Ohorongo Cement has set up a cement plant between Otavi and Tsumeb and invested about US$275m in the country. Ohorongo Cement has produced cement since February 2011. It has a capacity of capacity of 0.7Mt/yr and employs 316 people.

Finance Minister, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, imposed an import duty of 60% on cement with effect from 27 July 2012. Currently the 60% rate will remain in force until 2014 whereupon it will decrease annually to 12% in 2018. Namibia's domestic demand for cement is currently estimated to be about 0.5Mt/yr.