Sino Cement to commission bricks, tiles plant Sino-Zimbabwe

Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
GWERU-based cement manufacturing company, Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company, will next month commission its brick and tile manufacturing plant, which is now 80 percent complete.

Sino Zimbabwe Cement is also looking forward to increasing its workforce once the plant is commissioned.

The Chinese government, through its parastatals, China National Materials Group Corporation (Sinoma) and China Building Materials Corporation (CBMC) which owns a controlling stake in Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC), committed to setting up the $50 million brick and tile plant.

The first phase of the project, which is a joint venture with the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ), is expected to be completed in the next two months.

In an interview, SZCC managing director, Mr Wang Yong, said the brick moulding plant will meet international standards and will be producing various products, including face bricks that are being imported from neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.

Mr Yong said the first phase of the project will cost $10 million. “Our brick manufacturing plant is almost complete,” he said. “We expect it to be 100 percent complete in the next two months after which we will then do a test run.

“We have brought in world class machinery for the brick moulding. We are also bringing in latest technology. It’s a modern factory. We will be producing products such as face brick that are currently being imported. The plant is expected to start operating by October.”

Mr Yong said the plant will have the capacity to produce 60 million bricks per annum.

“Initially, we will be producing 60 million bricks per annum but when we complete the entire project we will be producing 100 million tonnes every year,” he said.

Sino Cement Zimbabwe is operating at 90 percent and is looking forward to scaling up production. The company has a workforce of close to 400.

The company is producing 300 000 tonnes of cement annually against a national demand of approximately 1,1 million tonnes.

Like any other manufacturing company in the country, Mr Yong said Sino Zimbabwe Cement has also been adversely affected by foreign currency shortages. He said the company was getting 85 percent of its raw materials locally.

Sino-Zimbabwe Cement was co-established in the 1990s by China National Building Material Company (CNBM) and Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) in line with China’s “Going Out” strategy.

With the whole line of state-of the-art equipment imported from China, SZCC, which is one of three cement manufacturers in the country, has an annual production capacity of 300 000 tonnes of Portland Cement (PC).

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