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Business Reporter

Border Timbers says it remains positive about demand for lumber poles despite seeing a 23 percent decline in sales volume for the quarter to September 30, 2022, compared to the same period last year.

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) listed company said sales volume for the period under review was weighed down by weak demand in the first two months of the first quarter.

Mr Elias Hwenga, the group’s chairman however said the month of September 2022 showed good signs of a rebound.

“We believe the demand for Lumber will remain strong in the local market and we continue being aggressive to expand the export market,” he said.

Mr Hwenga said poles sales volume was also 68 percent lower than the comparative period in prior year, mainly because of timing differences that are usually experienced in the acquisition of tenders, which is asymmetrical. He said improved performance was anticipated in the poles business due to expected strong demand for the product in the SADC region mainly for the rural electrification projects.

Updating on silviculture, harvesting and sawmilling, Mr Hwenga said the winter replanting plan was achieved with excellent survival rates and other silvicultural activities like weeding and pruning were broadly in line with planned targets.

The primary silvicultural focus of the company is to grow and maintain the forests to further strengthen the biological asset.

“The major business risk remains the loss of forestry to fire and to mitigate that, the company has strengthened its plantation patrol teams through enhanced firefighting training and acquisition of additional firefighting equipment during the first quarter to 30 September 2022,” said Mr Hwenga.

He said harvesting and sawmilling activities are fairly in line with expectations, however, the challenge remains with aged sawmilling equipment which is resulting in frequent breakdowns.

“Plans are underway to replace the old sawmilling equipment with new latest technology mills and commissioning of the new sawmills is expected before the end of this financial year (June 2023),” he said.

Mr Hwenga said recapitalisation remains a key priority with our replanting program already on course to reduce the unplanted area to the industry standard of 5 percent in the next three years.