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Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
KWEKWE-based explosives manufacturer GML Explosives has engaged Government seeking to be granted national strategic company status.

GML Explosives, formerly Dyno Nobel, is the only civil explosives manufacturing company in Zimbabwe. The firm was taken over by a consortium of Croatian businessmen and re-opened in 2014.

The company had shut down in 2008 owing to the challenging economic climate the country was going through at the time.

Managing director, Jairos Mushirivindi, said the company could stimulate growth and re-opening of other companies if given adequate support.

National strategic status means the company would benefit from tax rebates and get special funding support from Government.

“If GML Explosives is granted national strategic company it can make Sable Chemicals run full throttle 12 months a year because we consume 80 percent of their products, which includes ammonium nitrate that we use for our explosives,” he said.

“If then Sable Chemicals is at full throttle, it means it will be producing oxygen for Ziscosteel as it comes back to life. So, there is a linkage between GML Explosives, Sable Chemicals and Ziscosteel.

“This means we reduce the cost of doing business as we have linkages with companies, which are in Midlands and have a symbiotic relationship.”

The Kwekwe based firm was founded in 1990 as a technology transfer joint venture between the Swedish parent and the Government of Zimbabwe through the Industrial Development Corporation.

It became 100 percent locally owned in September 2007 and before the new Croatian investors Croinvest took over in 2014.

Its products are used in the mining and civil construction industries and have been traditionally exported to neighbouring countries in the region namely Zambia, DRC, Tanzania and East Africa.