Zimbabwe’s current foreign currency crisis that has seen the United States dollar trading at 60 percent against the local bond notes on the parallel market has delivered a final blow to cement production with major suppliers PPC, Lafarge and SinoZim admitting to shortages.

“The sharp rise in demand requires that all cement manufacturers operate their plants at 100 percent capacity utilisation to satisfy the market. This is, however, not possible due to incessant plant breakdowns caused by spares shortages,” cement producers said in a joint statement released today.

“Under the current economic conditions, the industry has been facing significant challenges in procuring spare parts from foreign suppliers as access to foreign currency remains difficult.

“This has, therefore, caused delays in the turnaround time for attending to breakdowns, limiting our capacity utilisation significantly. We are appealing to relevant arms of government to assist in facilitating priority allocation of foreign currency so as to expedite procurement of the required spares and equipment,” the companies added.

“From our research, this increase in demand has been influenced by a number of factors which include the increase in capital for mortgage financing on the market as well as the need by many clients to lock financial value in property following lucrative maize and tobacco marketing season boosted by the command agriculture programme,” the cement companies say.

-NewzWire