Displaying items by tag: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: PPC Zimbabwe has announced that it has entered into a preliminary agreement with a Zimbabwe-based energy investor “with technical partners in South Africa” that will build and operate the company’s planned 32MW solar power plant in Matabeleland South. 16MW will power PPC Zimbabwe’s cement production and the rest will be fed in the national electricity grid, according to the Herald newspaper. The unit will be located adjacent to PPC Zimbabwe’s 0.5Mt/yr integrated Colleen Bawn plant.

Zimbabwe: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has reported a profit of US$178m in 2019, up by 4.8% year-on-year from US$170m in 2018. Inflation-adjusted sales rose doubled to US$919m from US$449m. Cement volumes remained level at 323,000t. The company said that it, “recorded its best financial performance in over five years. The construction of a US$2m dry mortar mixing plant was completed and installation of the equipment on site is set to be completed in the second half of 2020.”

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has predicted a 30% year-on-year decline in sales volumes in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. All Africa News has reported that Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe is expecting to rely on foreign investment-led projects to stimulate a base level of cement demand to sustain the company’s operations.

Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe said, "The ripple effects of the lockdown and border closures are still to be fully quantified, but the business expects to continue to feel the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak into the second half of 2020."

South Africa: PPC has reported a predicted 95% year-on-year decline in its sales of cement in South Africa in April 2020 due to the impacts of the coronavirus. Sales in Rwanda and Zimbabwe, where production resumed in mid-late April 2020, are expected to decrease in the month by 80-85% year-on-year.

PPC says that PPC South Africa is preparing to resume production in line with the government’s risk-based regulations announced on 25 April 2020. The group said, “The uncertainty around the further development of the containment of the coronavirus makes it necessary for PPC to work with various scenarios.”

Zimbabwe: China-based Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company and LiveTouch Invest, owner of Diamond Cement Zimbabwe, have acquired a six hectare site in the coal mining area of Hwange, Matabeleland North Province, and announced a planned investment of US$30m in the construction of a grinding plant which will grind clinker with waste materials from coal extraction to produce cement.

LiveTouch Invest had previously mooted the idea of a Zimbabwean clinker plant joint venture with South Africa-based PPC in July 2019.

Zimbabwe: Work has begun on a 43,000t/yr dry mortar production line at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s 0.5Mt/yr Manresa plant in Harare. The plant, supplied by Turkey-based Varlik Industries, will increase the company’s mortar production capacity by 710% to 50,000t/yr from 7000t/yr. Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe chair Kumbirai Katsande said “The expansion project is three-pronged and will include doubling of cement capacity and tripling agricultural lime capacity as well as automation of the dry mortars plant.”

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Zimbabwe has appointed Precious Murena-Nyika as its chief executive officer (CEO). She succeeds Siame Kaulule, who left the post in February 2020 for a new role with LafargeHolcim in South Africa, according to the News Day newspaper.

Murena-Nyika was previously director for human resources and communications at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe. She is the immediate past president for the Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe. She holds a degree in Psychology and Masters in Business Administration from the University of Zimbabwe and a postgraduate diploma in leadership from the Harvard Business School.

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Zimbabwe’s chief executive officer (CEO) Siame Kaulule has left the company for a new role with LafargeHolcim in South Africa, according to the NewsDay newspaper. Kaulule was appointed as the head of LafargeHolcim’s Zimbabwe operations in early 2019. He succeeded Amal Naiel, who spent five years in the post.

Zimbabwe: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has announced a planned investment of US$15.0m in a dry mortar production line to diversify its product base. All Africa has reported that construction will begin in January 2020.

The company stated that it will conclude registration of a US$28.5m loan from the reserve bank of Zimbabwe before the end of 2019.

Zimbabwe: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has complained of implied year-on-year inflation of 350% in September 2019 having possible knock-on effects on its business. Company secretary Flora Chinhaire blamed a 19% year-on-year drop in domestic consumption on ‘declining demand from homeowners due to escalating mortgage financing costs’ and the effects of foreign currency constraints on payments to suppliers for capital expenditure projects. All Africa has reported that power supply issues and unplanned stoppages caused a 1% decline in productivity at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s 0.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant, where it operates a single wet production line.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted a 5.3% contraction in Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019.