KWEKWE, ZIMBABWE-- Sable Chemicals, Zimbabwe's sole producer of nitrogenous fertilizersm has announced plans to set up a new plant costing 200 million US dollars to produce ammonium nitrate and urea to enable it meet the growing demand for the commodity in the country.
Company Chairman Shingai Mutasa said during a tour of the company by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday: We are happy Your Excellency that your government has made re-industrialization and beneficiation core elements of your policies and interventions in this new economic order.
Sable and its shareholders have great ambitions to expand its existing capacity and are committed to investing more capital to this enterprise. Sable plans to double its quantity. We have negotiated a 25 million
USD offshore facility to do this but even more exciting for us is that Sable and its shareholders have committed to raising 200 million USD to fund a new ammonia plant and urea plant which will be fed with ammonia gas from either the coal-bed methane or nitro gas."
The new plant is projected to have the capacity to produce 240,000 tons of Ammonium Nitrate and 360,000 tons of Urea per year and enable the company to export these products, generating foreign currency for the country.
Currently, the company is operating at 25 per cent capacity, producing an average of 36,000 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate per year of the 160,000 to 180,000 tonnes required in the country.
Mutasa appealed to the government to support the company through prioritizing the allocation of foreign currency to import raw materials.
President Mnangagwa said it was necessary for his administration to support the company with foreign currency as its success had a ripple effect on other industries and the economy at large.
The visit by President Mnangagwa was the first visit by a sitting Head of State to the company in its more 50 years of production at its plant here in Midlands Province.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK
