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Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Lin Lin (left), Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha, deputy chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Retired Colonel Christian Katsande and Chegutu West Member of Parliament Dexter Nduna (right) prepare to tour Afrochine’s US$25 million chrome smelting plant in Selous last week

Tinashe Makichi Business Reporter
Chinese company, Afrochine is going to set up a multi-million dollar electricity generation plant that will alleviate the power deficit that is likely to affect the operations of its Selous smelter plant. The company recently launched its US$25millon smelting plant as phase one of its projects. Afrochine also said it was going to invest US$100 million towards completion of the phase two of its project to set up more smelters in Selous as it continues to extend its tentacles in the Zimbabwean chrome smelting industry.

Afrochine private limited is a subsidiary of Tsingshan Iron and Steel Group of China, the second largest stainless steel producer in that country.

In an interview with The Herald Business, Tsingshan Iron and Steel Group Xiang Guangda said the company had discussed with the

Government of Zimbabwe  over the setting up of an independent power generating plant that  alleviate the power shortages at the smelter.

“Afrochine is going to set up an electricity generating plant with the capacity of generating 600 to 1 000 megawatts.

“This goes in tandem with our plans to set up a stand steel plant that will require a lot of power, of which Zimbabwe do not have that capacity at the moment,” he said.

Mr Guangda said his company is willing to work with the Government of Zimbabwe towards creating employment as well as promoting value addition.

“In chrome ore we need US$100 per tonne and to process ferrochrome we need US$1 000 per tonne but to become a stand steel, US$5 000 per tonne is required and there is about 50 times increase in value. Therefore there is need for reliable power to make sure that the dream project is successful,” he said.

He added that he cannot divulge the amount of capital to be injected on the project because the company was still engaging the Government on the issue. The project is going to create more than 10 000 jobs.

Deputy Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Colonel Christian Katsande urged the Chinese company to put their proposal on paper so that it can be presented before the Cabinet.

“The investment of Chinese companies in the economic driving sectors of the economy is greatly welcome considering the amount of money that they are willing to invest, therefore they should put their proposal before the cabinet in a formal way.

“In fact as it turns out, the Zim Asset which has been adopted by the Government actually outlines this dream within the value addition cluster as well as emphasizing the issue of infrastructural development,” he said.

The company has already put in place US$100million that  will go towards the construction of 4 x 25 MVA smelters which will enable the company to increase its production capacity.

The company’s wish to embark on phase three of its projects has been the main issue that drove it to come up with the initiative of constructing a power generating plant.

Afrochine Zimbabwe chairman Mr Phillip Man  also said  it is still work in progress towards making sure that all the three phases are completed towards the benefit of the Zimbabwean economy.

The company is getting chrome ore from as far as Guruve that is processed before export to China. Afrochine said the company is going to increase its output since there is a ready market in China. Zimbabwe has the world’s largest chrome reserves and most of them are yet to be exploited.

Government has identified the mining sector as the backbone that can spearhead the revival of other sectors among them industry and agriculture.