Cement developments in South East Africa include a 1.1Mt/yr project start and completion of a 0.8Mt/yr expansion, both in Mozambique, in the past fortnight. The current round of cement capacity-building shows global trends of alternative raw materials substitution and electrification. It also goes to show the new geopolitical multipolarity, in the form of over US$600m of investments from China.
Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe lie at the southern end of the African Rift Valley system, between the Kalahari desert to the west and the Bushveld dry forest to the south. The three nations are connected by the course of the River Zambezi, from its source in Ikelenge district, Zambia, to its mouth 1500km away in Sofala and Zambezia provinces, Mozambique. The countries have a combined population of 74.5m people and an integrated cement capacity of 6.45Mt/yr. Over 4Mt/yr-worth of new capacity construction commenced, continued or concluded in August 2026. Additionally, the region has a proportion of planned and approved cement plant projects of uncertain status at present.
Mozambique’s cement sector is notable for its medium-sized integrated cement segment (two plants, 3.2Mt/yr) but large, diffuse cement grinding segment (10 plants, 4.75Mt/yr). The industry is shaped to take advantage of its location beside the Indian Ocean, via which it receives clinker and exports finished cement to buyers in Comoros and Madagascar, across the Mozambique Channel. An 11th, US$35m grinding plant is planned for Ancuabe in coastal Cabo Delgado province. Moçambique Dugongo Cimentos, a joint venture between SPI Gestão and China-based West International Holding, was preparing to commence the 17-month construction project in mid-2025.
Other developments indicate a shift in local industrial strategy towards greater self-sufficiency up the cement value chain. China-based Huaxin Cement subsidiary Cimentos de Moçambique successfully tripled the production capacity of its Nacala integrated cement plant in Nampula province to 1.2Mt/yr on 28 July 2026, at a cost of US$110m. Moçambique Dugongo Cimentos, meanwhile, is itself building a US$192m, 2.2Mt/yr integrated plant at Nacala, which had previously been due for delivery in 2025.
Then on 7 August 2026, Global Cement News reported broken ground at the site of a third Mozambican cement plant project. Clay & Gravel Holding’s upcoming 1.1Mt/yr Muxúnguè cement plant is reportedly under construction by China-based AVIC International Beijing. Clay & Gravel Holding is a single-parent entity, which, combined with its choice of engineering contractor, suggests Chinese ownership – perhaps by confirmed Muxúnguè plant investor China Energy Overseas Investment. Together with the Nacala plants, this is set to bring Mozambique’s cement sector to an eventual five integrated plants, with a combined capacity of 7.3Mt/yr. The Muxúnguè plant is also planned to have 0.9Mt/yr of additional clinker capacity.
In Zambia, state investment firm ZCCM Investments Holdings and China-based Wonderful Group launched a 45:55 joint venture, Ndola Lime, at the end of May 2026. The aim of the JV will be to restart the Ndola cement and lime plant in Copperbelt province. Wonderful Group will invest US$30m and ZCCM Investment Holdings will write off US$9.8m of historic debt attached to the Ndola facility. The restart of cement production will form Phase 2 or 3 of the planned project, following the restart of lime production, subject to local market conditions. Prior to its closure in 2018, the plant had a cement production capacity of 0.2Mt/yr.
Zambia’s 1.55Mt/yr integrated cement industry has been 100% (China-based) Huaxin Cement-owned since it acquired regional former Lafarge assets, including Zambia’s 0.55Mt/yr Chilanga and 1Mt/yr Ndola cement plants, in 2021. Read Global Cement’s previous analysis of Huaxin Cement’s movements in Sub-Saharan Africa from the end of 2024 here. China Zambia De Jin Xin Cement has had plans for a further Zambian integrated cement plant, along with a new limestone mine and captive power plant, since November 2024. The Global Cement Directory 2026 currently lists no grinding plants in Zambia.
Zimbabwe has 1.7Mt/yr in integrated capacity across four cement plants, with six grinding plants adding a further 2.5Mt/yr in installed cement capacity. The country is due to host a new, 0.4Mt/yr grinding plant from October 2026, Global Cement News has reported, following an update from Dinson Iron and Steel Company (DISCO) on 10 August 2026. The subsidiary of China-based Tsingshan Holding Group is building the US$15m plant at its Manhize metallurgical complex in Mashonaland East province, where cement production will benefit from a captive source of granulated blast furnace slag. The plant will also source limestone from Chirumhanzu and Masvingo districts. These districts occupy a geologically rich region, hitherto only developed for ferrous and precious metals production.
In neighbouring Mashonaland West province, China-based Shuntai Investments reported ‘significant progress’ on construction of its upcoming 2.2Mt/yr Chegutu integrated cement plant in mid-July 2026. The plant, including a captive 50MW solar power plant and fleet of electric vehicles, is on schedule to launch in September 2026. This will more than double Zimbabwe’s integrated production capacity, to 3.9Mt/yr. This removes any need for the 35,000 – 45,000t/month of cement that Zimbabwe imported in 2026 to-date, but raises the issue of overcapacity for the landlocked country. In 2025, Zimbabwe consumed 1.8Mt of cement, amidst locally-reported shortages.
Longer-term project concepts in Zimbabwe include a ‘rehabilitation’ of the 0.7Mt/yr Manresa cement plant in Harare (following a bail-out in 2024) by Uganda-based Hima Cement and a new, 1.5Mt/yr Dangote Cement plant at an as-yet unspecified location. PPC and China-based Sinoma Overseas Development, meanwhile, are collaborating on a potential expansion to the South Africa-based producer’s 0.5Mt/yr Colleen Bawn cement plant in Matabeleland South province – capacity as yet unconfirmed. A May 2026 announcement by the partners indicated that a new integrated cement plant project may follow after. The above projects may eventually raise the number of Zimbabwean integrated cement plants to seven.
An influx of foreign cash of the kind underway in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe is a mixed blessing. Across the region, new plants are rising up and mothballed ones are being resurrected. Companies like Tsingshan Holding Group and Shuntai Investments in Zimbabwe are signing the deals that African competitors appear to only be mulling over. At the upcoming Chegutu plant, Shuntai Investments is hiring 400 local people to work alongside its technicians. Over at Zvishvane in Midlands province, 120 people work at Zimbabwe’s newest grinding plant, opened just under a year ago in September 2025 by China-based Livetouch Investments. On 24 February 2026, the High Court of Zimbabwe found that Livetouch Investments had breached its contract with the Zvishvane plant’s coal fines supplier, locally-based Avim Investments, by not paying it.1
Zimbabwe will celebrate its 50th and Mozambique its 55th anniversary of independence in 2030; Zambia’s 65th will be in 2029. Whether geopolitical multipolarity will be able to serve these countries better than the old extractive postcolonialism depends on the relationships between local networks on the one hand and plant managers under pressure to deliver results on the other. These relationships, however, take time.
References
1 NewZimbabwe, 'Chinese firm Livetouch ordered to pay US$380k to transporter in long-running debt saga, 24 February 2026,' www.newzimbabwe.com/chinese-firm-livetouch-ordered-to-pay-us380k-to-transporter-in-long-running-debt-saga/
