From furnace to fabrication: Human capital, downstream industrialisation, and Zimbabwe’s steel renaissance

By Eng. Paul Matshona and Eng. Martin January

Zimbabwe’s re-emergence as a steel-producing nation through the Manhize Integrated Steel Project marks a critical inflection point in Southern Africa’s industrial history.

Operated by Dinson Iron and Steel Company (DISCO), a subsidiary of the Tsingshan Group, the project’s 600 000-tonne per annum capacity; scalable to 1.2 million tonnes; re-positions Zimbabwe as a continental steel hub.

While the earlier article rightly emphasised the upstream primary steel-making anchor represented by Manhize (pig iron, carbon steel, 0.6 Mt/y initial, expansion to 1.2 Mt/y) and the classic linkage framework of backward and forward linkages, the critical frontier now is the forward linkage: downstream fabrication, medium-and high-value steel products, and the multiplier industrial ecosystem that turns steel-tonnage into jobs, technology, and exports.

As a Strategy for Economic Development, the transformative potential of a sector lies not in production alone but in its linkages; the backward, forward, and lateral connections that generate cumulative learning and industrial spillovers.

For Zimbabwe, this means that the real test of the Manhize project will not be the furnace’s output but the ecosystem it stimulates foundries, fabrication plants, design workshops, and, critically, the human capital capable of operating them.

The steel renaissance is therefore as much a skills revolution as it is a metallurgical one. Without competent metallurgists, foundry technologists, and industrial designers, Zimbabwe risks reproducing a “blast-furnace enclave”; an upstream success divorced from domestic capability. This article argues that the downstream expansion and human-capital renewal led by the Zimbabwe School of Mines constitute the decisive lever for transforming Zimbabwe’s steel revival into an enduring industrial renaissance.

Steel, Linkages, and Human Capability

Steel industries represent the backbone of industrial economies because they produce intermediate goods essential to construction, energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure. They exhibit strong linkage elasticity, their capacity to generate employment and value addition grows exponentially with the complexity of downstream uses. Producing steel is necessary but not sufficient. The value rich zone lies in converting that steel into structural long products, plates, tubes, heavy fabrication, and ultimately finished goods whose value-addition multiplies national income, employment, skill formation and regional competitiveness.

In development theory, the forward linkages of a steel industry (fabrication, machinery, consumer goods) are more transformative than its backward linkages (mining, coking, power).

Yet both depend fundamentally on human capital accumulation. Human capability provides the “absorptive capacity” required for technology transfer, process improvement, and innovation. Late-industrialising countries succeed when they embed technical education and applied research directly into their industrial policies. This perspective underpins the Zimbabwean case: the downstream expansion of Manhize will succeed only if accompanied by an equally ambitious expansion of metallurgical, fabrication, and foundry skills.

Historical Trajectory: From ZISCO to Manhize

At its peak in the 1980s, ZISCO Steel produced over one million tonnes of crude steel annually, anchoring a network of downstream industries: foundries, fastener manufacturers, tube mills, and agricultural implement makers. It was the heart of Zimbabwe’s industrial fabric. When ZISCO collapsed in the early 2000s, this ecosystem disintegrated thousands of skilled workers migrated, and domestic firms reverted to importing steel products from South Africa and Asia.

The collapse revealed that the greatest casualty of de-industrialisation was skills erosion: welders, rolling-mill operators, and metallurgists lost institutional homes. The Manhize project now offers a chance to rebuild both plant and people.

Manhize is more than a blast furnace; it is an integrated complex combining iron ore mining, coke production, smelting, and rolling. It sits strategically within the Midlands, adjacent to coalfields and railway corridors. Yet its sustainability depends on whether Zimbabwe can extend its production chain into fabrication, engineering, and machinery manufacturing, the value-intensive frontiers of the steel economy.

The Downstream Imperative: From Tonnes to Technology

Producing steel billets creates the foundation, but transforming those billets into engineered products creates the nation. The downstream economy includes rebar, beams, pipes, coated sheet, galvanised structures, pressure vessels, and industrial components. Zimbabwe’s current downstream sector is constrained by: (1) Under-capitalised firms: an estimated US$10 to US$15 million is needed for re-tooling ; (2) A thin product mix focused on rebar and mesh; (3) Limited certification: few firms meet SANS/ASTM standards; (4) Logistical inefficiencies raising delivered costs by up to 25 %; and (5) Power unreliability undermining continuous processes. Addressing these gaps requires not only policy incentives but a competent workforce trained in modern steel, fabrication, and quality-control technologies, precisely the niche the Zimbabwe School of Mines is now filling.

Re-Engineering Industrial Human Capital

Institutional Reorientation

Founded in 1926 as a mining-technical college, the Zimbabwe School of Mines has transformed into a national centre for industrial and metallurgical education. Recognising the structural shift in Zimbabwe’s economy, ZSM has introduced specialised programmes in: Iron and Steelmaking, and Foundry Technology. This curricular diversification marks a strategic alignment with the Manhize–Midlands Industrial Corridor, ensuring that local human resources match the demands of the new steel complex.

Modernised Curricula

ZSM’s Diploma in Iron & Steel Making and Diploma in Foundry Technology are two distinct, specialised programmes designed to equip technicians for different stages of the metal production value chain. The Iron and Steel Making Programme focuses on primary production, covering pyrometallurgy, furnace dynamics, steel refining, casting, and automation. Students are trained to become experts in the large-scale processes that transform raw materials into steel. They are skilled in process simulation and quality assurance operations, metallography, non-destructive testing, and process-control instrumentation, preparing them for roles such as Furnace Operator, Steel Maker, Process Metallurgist, and Caster Operator.

Complementing this is the Foundry Technology Programme, which focuses on component manufacturing. The cornerstone of this programme is the planned Foundry Technology Laboratory (Innovation Hub), an ambitious facility designed to train students in moulding, melting, pattern design, heat treatment, and alloy formulation. To ensure its success, this Innovation Hub will require strategic partnerships and funding from a consortium of players, including industry, government development agencies, and international donors. This collaborative model will enable the hub to serve not only as a premier training site but also as a prototype production centre for small and medium fabricators, reviving local casting capacity once dominant in Bulawayo’s engineering workshops.

This integrated approach, combining a theoretical foundation in extractive and physical metallurgy with hands-on practical skills, ensures graduates from both streams are equipped with the modern, industry-relevant expertise needed to revitalize the sector.

Work-Integrated Learning and Industry Partnerships

The Zimbabwe School of Mines has a formal partnership with the National Railways of Zimbabwe to create an Industrial Skills Corridor; a framework designed to integrate technical training, applied research, and industrial practice within the evolving metallurgical value chain. This collaboration facilitates joint research on furnace efficiency, slag recycling, and process optimisation, alongside co-supervision of postgraduate dissertations in areas such as process metallurgy and environmental performance. The Industrial Skills Corridor is poised for further enhancement through strategic partnerships with other training institutions such as Midlands State University and Harare Institute of Technology, aimed at deepening skills development, curriculum innovation, and collaborative research in industrial automation and materials engineering.

Through DISCO’s involvement, the partnership extends into real-time industrial placements at the Manhize Steelworks, where students gain hands-on experience in smelting operations, quality control, and plant management. Collectively, this model ensures that theory and practice converge seamlessly, establishing a continuous pipeline of skilled artisans, technologists, and engineers capable of driving Zimbabwe’s emerging iron and steel economy.

Research and Innovation

At the centre of this transformation, the role of research and innovation cannot be overemphasised. Effective coordination of the National Metallurgical Research Cluster, with the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC), the Institute of Mining Research (IMR), and the Zimbabwe School of Mines (ZSM) playing lead and complementary roles, is paramount to ensuring that the iron and steel value chain advances through evidence-based innovation and applied science.

Within this collaborative framework, SIRDC provides national research infrastructure and technological development capabilities, IMR drives applied scientific investigations and mineral beneficiation research, while ZSM bridges academia and industry through applied training, pilot-scale experimentation, and technology transfer to the workforce.

The cluster’s research agenda focuses on critical themes such as: slag valorisation and cementitious applications, promoting waste-to-resource conversion and sustainable construction materials; low-carbon steelmaking and energy recovery, aimed at reducing emissions and improving process efficiency; additive manufacturing using recycled metallic powders, advancing material circularity and technological modernisation; and material failure analysis for mining and infrastructure sectors, enhancing safety, reliability, and lifecycle performance.

Together, these research priorities driven through the coordinated efforts of SIRDC, IMR, and ZSM position Zimbabwe’s steel industry on a trajectory toward sustainability, resilience, and circular economy integration, while aligning national production systems with emerging Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) benchmarks and global decarbonisation goals.

6. The Economics of Downstream Diversification

The downstream sector represents the highest value capture per tonne of steel. For every US$1 of steel produced, fabrication and coating can add US$2-3 in GDP. Furthermore, employment elasticity is an order of magnitude greater: fabrication employs up to 10 times more labour per tonne than smelting. Downstream value chains can be segmented as follows:

ZSM’s training programmes mirror these clusters, creating skills alignment with industrial strategy, a rare feature in African manufacturing systems.

Regional Positioning: From Midlands to the Continent

Southern Africa’s steel landscape is shifting. ArcelorMittal South Africa’s downsizing has left a supply gap of nearly 2 million tonnes annually in long products. Zambia and Mozambique rely heavily on imports. Zimbabwe’s central location and rail corridors offer competitive advantage; if it can ensure quality, reliability, and cost efficiency.

Under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Zimbabwean steel products can move duty-free across 54 markets. Capturing even 3 % of continental infrastructure steel demand (approximately 10 Mtpa) could generate US$500 million in annual exports. ZSM’s role in producing certified, mobile, regionally recognised technicians’ positions Zimbabwe to compete regionally not just on price, but on capability.

ESG, Green Steel, and the Future of Industrial Training

As global markets adopt carbon-border adjustment mechanisms, the carbon intensity of steel will increasingly determine market access. DISCO’s integrated design, coke-oven gas recovery, captive power, and slag reuse, already offers a low-emission baseline. ZSM complements this by incorporating Green Metallurgy and Environmental Engineering into its curriculum, training graduates to implement: Water-recycling systems, and Carbon-monitoring frameworks. This alignment between training and sustainability ensures Zimbabwe’s downstream products meet the environmental criteria demanded by modern markets.

 Policy Architecture: Integrating Skills and Industry

To ensure long-term viability, industrial policy must institutionalise human-capital planning. Key recommendations include:

Through such integration, education becomes industrial policy, and industrial policy becomes applied education.

The Furnace Produces Steel; People Produce Industry

Zimbabwe’s steel revival through Manhize has re-lit the nation’s industrial furnace, but the real spark lies in its people. The Zimbabwe School of Mines, through its new iron and steel making and foundry techology programmes, is rebuilding the human architecture of industrialisation; training artisans, engineers, and innovators who will sustain the steel economy long after the furnaces cool. Downstream development transforms steel from a product into a platform for inclusive growth. Every beam rolled, every bolt cast, every apprentice trained moves Zimbabwe closer to an industrial equilibrium where production, knowledge, and innovation reinforce each other.

Paul Matshona is a Mining Engineer and Researcher at the Zimbabwe School of Mines, specialising in sustainable mining systems, environmental governance, ESG, responsible mining, and de-risking strategies for small and medium-scale mining operations.

Martin January is a Financial and Mining Engineer, and Training & Operations Manager at the Zimbabwe School of Mines, focusing on financial modelling, operational efficiency, technical and financial valuation, and capacity-building in the mining sector.