Chinese-built steel plant in Zimbabwe fires up its furnace as it...

Chinese-built steel plant in Zimbabwe fires up its furnace as it ‘builds the nation’

There are high hopes that the Mvuma steel plant in Zimbabwe, built by Chinese steel giant Tsingshan, will turn the country’s fortunes around

A new US$1.5 billion Chinese-built iron and steel plant in Zimbabwe has fired up its blast furnace as it begins production of pig iron, a major raw material needed to make steel.

The Mvuma steel plant could see Zimbabwe become one of Africa’s largest producers of iron and steel products

Raw materials will be mined and processed locally, government officials have said, with enough reserves to last 100 years. Zimbabwe is rich in natural resources to help lift it out of its economic crisis, including gold, diamonds, nickel, ferroalloys, coke, coal briquettes, chromium ore, tobacco and raw cotton.

Tsingshan, the world’s biggest stainless steel producer, also has other projects in Zimbabwe, including a ferrochrome smelting factory owned by subsidiary Afrochine Smelting in Selous, a village in Mashonaland West province, around 70km west of Harare.

Last year, Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Disco) signed a deal with the landlocked African nation on the construction and refurbishment of a 1,000km-long railway line so that the company’s products could be transported to Beira, Mozambique, on the east coast of Africa, for export.

“Once we start production, we will be moving a lot of exports and in large quantities to different parts of the world,” the steel producer said.

Chinese-built Zimbabwe steel plant fires up its furnace as it begins production https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3267554/chinese-built-steel-plant-zimbabwe-fires-its-furnace-it-builds-nation