Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s increased output

Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s increased output
24 August 2011


Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe says it plans to produce 280,000t of cement this year despite encountering a major plant breakdown in June.

Following the introduction of multiple currencies in 2009, Zimbabwe’s construction industry has been steadily improving, albeit at a slower pace.

Lafarge’s full-year production figures for 2010 stood at 250,000t while initial forecasts for 2011 were placed at 320,000t.

The company’s performance and improvements manager, Edson Chakanyuka explained that should productivity be measured only as output, then the current refurbishment exercises should see the company achieving anything between 25% to 30% growth in output improvements.

"However, productivity is a measure of various other performance indicators which feed into how efficiently the plant is running. In this respect, we have a lot more ground to cover," he said, adding that US$5m would be injected into operations every year for the next four years.

It recently has the capacity to produce 450,000tpa of cement, but is targeting the 1Mt mark after investing US$15m to increase plant capacity over the past six years.

Published under Cement News