Displaying items by tag: Zambezi Portland Cement

Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement is facing fresh legal proceedings over its ownership. The Lusaka Times newspaper reports that proceedings at the Court of Appeal are ongoing against businessman Phesto Musonda. Musonda, a former director of the company, allegedly attempted to take control of part of the company’s plant in September 2021. Unrest has also been reported at the cement producer’s plant with youths throwing stones at workers.

The current owners of Zambezi Portland Cement, the Ventriglia family, previously won a 10-year battle of control of the company against businessman Rajan Mahtani. In 2018 the High Court of Zambia awarded the family full ownership of the business.

Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement has allowed retail purchases directly from its integrated Ndola plant to reduce price exploitation. Chief executive officer Gomeli Litana said that the plant had made the decision to help small consumers, according to the Times of Zambia newspaper. He added that the producer was implementing a fixed price and was not attempting to interfere in the general retail market.

Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement has spent Euro23m on an upgrade to its plant. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gomeli Litana said that the upgrade was necessary due to the high demand for cement, according to the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation. He added that the expansion was likely to reduce the cost of cement.

Zambia: The Ventriglia family has been awarded full ownership of Zambezi Portland Cement by the High Court of Zambia. The resolution follows a 10-year battle between the Ventriglias and businessman Rajan Mahtani, according to the Times of Zambia. Mahtani’s company Finsbury Investments claimed a majority share in the cement producer but the Ventriglia family objected, asserting full ownership of the company.

Zambia: The High Court of Zambia has set 25 February 2018 as the date it will hand down a judgement on a case involving Zambezi Portland Cement (ZPC) between businessman Rajan Mahtani and the Vetriglia family. The case concerns a battle over the shares and management of the company between Mahtani and members of the Vetriglia family, according to the Times of Zambia. Mahtani originally attempted to close the company in 2015 but the original owners resisted the attempt. However, Mahtani maintains that he holds a majority share in the cement producer.

Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement (ZPC) says it has been losing US$2.5/bag (50kg) of cement it has sold since Dangote Cement entered the market. Operations director Daniele Ventriglia said that, despite maintaining its market share, the competition in the cement business was stiff.

Ventriglia said that ZPC would invest US$4m in new state-of-the-art block-making machinery, which will provide a higher proportion of value-added products. "The machines are expected to arrive from Italy in the next three months, before the year ends. Production of blocks will increase by 20%. An additional 25 people will be employed," he said. Ventriglia added that ZPC had remained competitive in block production because its product was of high quality and at an affordable price.

Zambia: Some 47 employees at Zambezi Portland in Ndola have been laid off while a further 63 are earmarked for retrenchment. The redundancies are due to reduction in business volume at the cement company, which is now faced with stiff competition from the newly commissioned Dangote Cement plant.

Zambezi Portland Cement operations director Danielle Ventriglia confirmed the retrenchment and said that the affected workers had been paid US$308/each in benefits. Ventriglia said that the retrenchments were necessitated by economic reasons and that the company would maintain a lean workforce. He added that the company was also working towards reclaiming the market share and had reduced its cement price significantly. Another 63 workers are expected to be retrenched in the next six weeks and the company would retain a workforce of 340 employees.

Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement (ZPC) increased its cement production by 5% to 475,000t/yr in 2013 from 452,000t/yr in 2012. ZPC sales and marketing manager Isaac Ngoma said that ZPC had seen its output grow by 25% year-on-year to nearly 70,000t for the first two months of 2014. ZPC has expansion projects planned for 2014 and the company also intends to increase its mining and aggregate sales.

Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement has reduced its export sales by 50% to cope with increased domestic demand in Zambia. According to sales and marketing manager Isaac Ngoma, the company had been exporting more than 14,000t/month to neighbouring countries. Export sales will now be limited to 7000t/month.

"For us, the Zambian market is our first priority and only the excess product is sold abroad, so with demand reaching an all time high locally, we see little sense in continuing to service foreign markets while starving the local market," said Ngoma.

Zambezi Portland Cement has a cement production capacity of 1400t/day and it is currently producing at over 95% of its installed capacity.

Zambia: Cement production has stopped at Zambezi Portland Cement in Ndola due to a dispute over the company's shareholder structure, according to The Times of Zambia newspaper.

A senior source at the cement producer said that management officials were locked out of the plant on 24 December 2012. He added that the halt in operations was due to ongoing issues regarding the ownership of Zambezi Portland Cement. Further checks by the newspaper revealed that the plant is surrounded by security personnel. Zambia Portland Cement has a production capacity of 1300t/day.