Sinosteel to build plant for Zimbabwe’s $1bn ferrochrome expansion

ZIMBABWE plans to more than triple ferrochrome production have been given a boost after Sinosteel Corporation said it would build a power plant supplied by coal-bed methane, said Bloomberg News.

The Beijing-based company’s Zimasco unit will build a 400MW power plant to raise production of the stainless-steel ingredient to 300,000 tons per year from 120,000 tons, Sinosteel President Andong Liu told reporters Monday in the capital, Harare. The ferrochrome investment is valued at $1bn.

Zimasco plans to build three new smelting furnaces and will supply excess electricity to the national grid, said Bloomberg News citing Zimbabwe president Emmerson Mnangagwa who was also speaking at the event. Two smelters will be based in Zvishavane, 357 kilometres south of Harare, and another in the central town of Kwekwe, he said.
Zimasco is investing in new capacity less than three months after the company was nursed back to financial health and removed from judicial management.