PHILLIMON MHLANGA
The country’s largest cement maker, PPC Zimbabwe, has shelved plans to construct a clinker plant in Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central Province, due to reduced construction activity in the country.
In 2014, PPC undertook a feasibility study for the proposed clinker plant in Mt Darwin and concluded public hearings for the Environmental Impact Assessment.
It is also understood that work had also commenced in establishing access roads to the proposed plant.
The clinker plant would have doubled PPC’s capacity.
PPC Zimbabwe managing director, Kelibone Masiyane, told Business Times that the current installed capacity at 1.4m tonnes annually was much higher than the national demand which stands at 1.3m tonnes a year, saying there was no justification to construct another plant.
Masiyane said constructing new plants was demand driven and the proposed Mt Darwin plant was now on hold and would only be reconsidered when the company started running out of capacity.
“So, all that will be demand driven as we go into the future. I think at that stage things were pointing to the need of having another plant. But, well, if we see ourselves running out of capacity, we will then be back at that stage to consider it,” Masiyane said.
Cement is produced in two phases with the first being the production of clinker from limestone. The second phase involves crushing the clinker into cement powder.
PPC operates a clinker plant at Colleen Bawn in Gwanda, as well as cement milling plants in Bulawayo and Harare, which it commissioned in 2017 at a cost amounting to US$82m.
The Harare plant is producing more than 700 000 tonnes a year, doubling the company’s installed capacity to 1.4m tonnes yearly against a national demand of 1.3m tonnes a year.
