Kumbirai Mafunda
21 February 2005
ZIMBABWE'S manufacturing sector was last week plunged into limbo after an erratic shortage of coal hit the whole industry, StandardBusiness has learnt.
Engines and turbines at most firms were knocked down due to the scarcity of the fuel, a major raw material in the production process. Most heavily industrialised companies were reported to have terminated production due to the erratic supplies.
Chiredzi-based sugarcane grower Hippo Valley, Modzone, Saybrooke and fertiliser manufacturer Windmill were some of the companies forced to approach the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) to intervene on their behalf to get coal supplies normalised. CZI boss Farai Zizhou told Standard Business that the apex industrial body took its members' concerns to management at Hwange Colliery Company (HCC), the country's largest producer of coal.
In Harare most foundry companies halted production last week as the shortages worsened. The CZI swiftly moved to assist members fearing that if sustained, the shortages of fuel would have had a serious bearing on the manufacturing sector.
"If your company has not been able to get enough supplies of coal, could you please advise the undersigned so that arrangements for assistance can be made. Please indicate the tonnages required," read a CZI circular distributed to members.
Fears ran high last week that the coal shortage could hit hospitals, most of which use coal to heat boilers for steam to sterilise instruments used in theatre and labour wards.
Although at one time HCC failed to meet the high demand for coal for the local market, industrialists blame the limited supply of railway wagons as the major impediment. Hwange MD Godfrey Dzinomwa echoed the same sentiments, blaming the coal shortages on distribution bottlenecks.
"Those facing shortages are people who have been trying to go through coal merchants and not directly to us," he said.
Dzinomwa said Hwange has since increased its monthly output to 300 000 tonnes from 200 000 in 2004. He said the opening of an underground mine would boost production levels to 150 000 tonnes more per month.
About 85 to 95% of HCC's coal production is obtained from the open cast mine, which depends on the dragline. The failure to service and maintain the dragline owing to a foreign currency squeeze has reduced capacity output in the past few years.
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