Zimbabwe Phosphates Industries (Zimphos), the country’s sole phosphate fertilizer producer, on Sept. 5 inaugurated its first fertilizer blending plant with capacity to produce up to 200,000 mt/y, in time to supply product for the 2022/23 summer cropping season.
Some $1.1 million has been invested in the new blending plant at Msasa, according to local media, citing Zimphos’ direct owner, Chemplex Corp. Ltd. Zimphos is wholly owned by the Zimbabwe government through Chemplex Corp., which is in turn is owned 100% by the country’s Industrial Development Corp.
Further investment is ongoing for a second fertilizer blending plant, which, according to some reports, is expected to be installed in October, as well as in a new phosphate beneficiation plant at the Chemplex-owned Dorowa Minerals’ Dorowa Mine. The mine is Zimbabwe’s only phosphate mine.
Zimphos has existing production capacity for 200,000 mt/y of SSP at Harare and 40,000 mt/y of TSP at Msara, according to Green Markets database.
In addition to phosphate fertilizers, Zimphos is Zimbabwe’s sole producer of aluminium sulfate for municipal water treatment, sulfuric acid, and other industrial chemicals.
Meanwhile, Kwekwe-based ammonium nitrate (AN) manufacturer Sable Chemicals Industries Inc. the country’s sole AN producer, expects to resume operations during this month after halting production early this year for refurbishment, according to a report by Zimbabwe’s Chronicle.
The restart has been timed to meet the needs of the 2022/23 summer cropping season, and Sable expects to produce about 120,000 mt of AN in the 2022/23 farming season, according to the report.
The refurbishment project is aimed at increasing the company’s AN production capability to about 200,000 mt/y of AN, up from 50,000 mt/y, in a move to meet Zimbabwe’s AN requirements and reduce imports. According to the report, the refurbishment is expected to be fully completed by December.
Sable’s AN output in recent years has been well below installed capacity due to apparent technical issues and limited ammonia availability (met by own production and imports).The company has nominal AN production capacity of 250,000 mt/y at Kwekwe with two ammonia production units with nominal ammonia capacity of 110,000 mt/y each, according to Green Markets’ database.
The company secured an $11 million loan from Africa Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) last year for the refurbishment project.
The projects are part of the Zimbabwe government’s Five-Year “Fertilizer Import Substitution Roadmap,” implemented in 2020 for the years to 2024, designed to help reduce the country’s import bill, put at around $280 million currently.
According to the Chronicle report, Zimbabwe in a good season needs some 600,000 mt of fertilizers, of which basal compound fertilizers constitute roughly 350,000 mt of the total requirement and AN 250,000 mt.