Sino Cement Zimbabwe is setting up a brick and tile manufacturing unit in Gweru, Zimbabwe at the cost of US$20mn. The unit will create about 200 local jobs and manufacture about 60 million bricks annually.
The cement producing company is a subsidiary of China National Materials Group Corporation (SINOMA), which is administered by the Chinese government.
Sino Cement MD Wang Yong told journalists that the setting up of a brick manufacturing unit is the first phase of a three-phase expansion plan that will cost nearly US$50mn in total.
“We are diversifying as a company and we have a new project under which we want to make use of a by-product from limestone extraction, shell, which is usually quarried on the outer layer of limestone. We want to utilise this by-product to start making bricks,” he said.
He added that construction of the first phase of expansion is expected to be finished by mid-2016. Yong said, “Construction on site is likely to take less than a year and we are expecting to start making bricks by June next year if everything goes according to plan.”
