×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

RioZim to commission $1 million oxygen plant

News
ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listed mining concern RioZim Limited will commission a $1 million oxygen plant in the next two months

ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listed mining concern RioZim Limited will commission a $1 million oxygen plant in the next two months to expand its refinery production, a company official has said.

Report by Tarisai Mandizha

The new plant, according to the company, has the capacity to increase annual output to 45 000 metric tonnes per annum from the current 14 000 metric tonnes. RioZim managing director Ashton Ndlovu said at the company’s analyst briefing recently the new state-of-the-art 20-tpd oxygen plant was being exported from India and would result in cost savings of $318 000 per month.

“We have been continuously engaging with BOC Gases which has not offered a solution in the last year. This led to the decision to procure our own oxygen plant which, I believe, is being shipped out of England in the next two weeks,” Ndlovu said.

He said the company would be engaging BOC Gases to refurbish its existing oxygen plant that was currently underperforming.

In the full year ending December 2012, RioZim posted revenue growth of 33% to $72,383 million from $54,544 million in 2011. Ndlovu said the group was projecting revenue growth of 157% to $185 million this year from $72 million recorded in 2012. He said the group would clear its arrears owed to local banks this year.

The group owes $91 million to creditors. This includes $60 million from banks and interest charges. The $11,6 million raised through a private placement would be used to retire the company’s debts.

Last year, RioZim carried out a retrenchment exercise which resulted in over 100 workers being laid off. According to Ndlovu, the company is now saving $2 million annually after the exercise.