The Sunday News
Chrispen Gumunyu, Business Reporter
BIRCK-making company, Neddicky Industries has purchased a brick making machine valued at US$500 000, a move meant to boost production at the Bulawayo company by more than 100 percent.
In an interview, company site engineer, Ms Buhle Ndlovu said the state-of-the-art brick making machine was acquired from South Africa.
“We purchased a VB1X Stationery Electro Hydraulic block making machine which was in the region of about USD$450 000-USD$500 000. It is a brick making machine that uses different moulds to make block, standard size, pavers and breeze blocks. This is a semi-automatic machine which means it only needs one person to operate it,” said Ms Ndlovu.
She said the machine is the first in Bulawayo and it was acquired to increase Neddicky Industries’ daily production of bricks.
“This machine is the only one in Bulawayo and we purchased it so as to increase our production since we were struggling to meet the demand because of antiquated machinery. With this new machine we are expecting production for blocks to increase from 3 000 a day to
13 000, standard bricks from 20 000 to 90 000, pavers from 15 000 to 70 000 and breeze blocks from 1 000 to 5 000 a day,” she said.
Ms Ndlovu said the machine was now awaiting installation.
“Application for the rebate of duty on capital equipment was a lengthy process but it has been a success because we have acquired the machine and we are now doing final touches on the installation”, said Ms Ndlovu.
