Dete Ceramics fortifies regional export markets

29 Nov, 2015 - 00:11 0 Views
Dete Ceramics fortifies regional export markets Dete Industrial Ceramics

The Sunday News

 Dete Industrial Ceramics

Dete Industrial Ceramics

Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
ONE of the country’s oldest manufacturers of ceramic and refractory products, Dete Industrial Ceramics has set sights at fortifying its new export markets in Botswana and Zambia as it tries to boost production which has fallen to 20 percent of installed capacity.

The company’s revenues have been on a free-fall due to the advent of modern products and liquidity constraints that have hit the country over the years.

Dete Industrial Ceramics general manager Mr Godfree Zivanai said early this year the company exported its Gwayi tiles to Botswana and fire bricks to Zambia and had received a number of inquiries from the two countries. The company manufactures pressed and quarry floor tiles and fire, industrial, face and insulation bricks.

“We have always had a thrust on exports but recently we had customers from Botswana and Zambia. We intend to use these (customers) to link us to other potential clients in their countries as we have been receiving inquiries from there.

“As such we intend to visit these two countries on a market survey mission. We have already lined-up a Botswana tour in the second week of December and then Zambia early next year,” Mr Zivanai.

Dete Industrial Ceramics is a subsidiary of the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) and started operating in 1989.

The company used to be a major supplier of refractory or fire bricks.

Its biggest customers were mostly iron smelting companies notably Ziscosteel which it was supplying with fire bricks for the relining of its furnaces.

Due to depressed business, the company has over the years been forced to retrench part of its workforce from a high of 200 in 2007 to only 20 employees to date.

“Our capacity utilisation is around 20 percent largely due to the low uptake of our products and the fact that we have been using antiquated machinery, which is constantly breaking down.

“Most people are relying on what we call farm bricks, the ones made from clay obtained from the bush which are not regulated and standardised. People should heed advice that those bricks don’t even meet the minimum requirements by the Standard Association of Zimbabwe for construction of infrastructure,” Mr Zivanai said.

The company had to destroy two of its rotary kilns with a capacity to produce 6 000 each to pave way for a rectangular kiln with a capacity to produce 100 000 bricks. Construction of the new kiln, which started early last year has been slow due to lack of funding.

Presently, the company is producing using its remaining three rotary kilns with a capacity of producing 15 000 bricks each.

“We are on the verge of completing our new kiln. It’s now at roof level and hopefully we will do so early next year. So far we have spent in excess of $200 000, which we realised from our coffers. We expect to pour about $350 000 into the project. The amount was going to surplus that but fortunately we have largely been using our own raw materials,” Mr Zivanai said.

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