MARTIN MAWAYA
KWEKWE–Zimbabwe Mining and Smelting Company (ZIMASCO) says huge electricity bills are affecting the viability of ferrochrome industry.
The bills went up 82% recently after Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company (ZETDC) scrapped a special tariff for ferrochrome producers.
The company’s chief operations officer Namatai Mapfumo said the operations have become unviable , hence the company is now turning to solar energy to ease power costs.
He was speaking to journalists during a tour of ZIMASCO plant in Kwekwe recently.
“There has been a special tariff offered to the ferrochrome producers so that they are able to continue to work and compete on the world market. What happened is that a decision was then made by the power utility to discontinue that special tariff and then move everyone to a cost recovery tariff.
“So what that does immediately is to make the ferrochrome producers unviable because the process of smelting is power intensive. Given the situation that the special tariff has been discontinued to over a high tariff of 82 percent increase, it means the end of the road for ferrochrome players,” he said.
Mapfumo added that the ferrochrome producers are the biggest consumers of power in the country while at the same time they are selling their products to a volatile market.
He said the industry’s operations are power dependent and the mining company consumes between 390 to 490 million kilowatts of electricity per month.
Mapfumo highlighted that the power costs will jeopardize the targeted growth as the company is also working towards contributing to the stability of the industry.
In 2015 ZETDC reduced the power tariffs by 21% in an effort to cushion ferrochrome producers.
Meanwhile, the Kwekwe ferrochrome giant says it has partnered with the Chinese investor to develop Ngezi 4 Mine shaft to start mining chromide ore.
Mapfumo added that the Chinese partners will bring in capital while ZIMASCO provides technical expertise.
He said the company targets to produce about 5 000 tonnes of chromide ore per month from one mine.
