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 250 000 tonnes while initial forecasts for 2011 were placed at 320 000 tonnes.
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 $5million would be injected into operations every year for the next four years.
Lafarge Cement manufactures and supplies a wide range of building materials to the local market, including cement, concrete and gypsum products.
It recently has the capacity to produce 450 000 tonnes of cement a year, but is targeting the one million tonne mark after investing US$15 million to increase plant capacity over the past six years.
