Steel floods Zambian market

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 09:43:25 +0000

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
ZAMBIA currently has more than one billion tonnes of unexploited iron ore found in all the 10 provinces which can be used to produce steel and other steel products.
Kafue Steel technical director, Julius Kaoma, said Zambia had more iron ore than copper.
“There is more iron ore in Zambia than copper but we are only known by copper. We have more than 1 billion tonnes of iron ore and it is found in all the 10 provinces of Zambia. We have to exploit the iron ore to produce steel, it is a localised production,” he said.
Dr. Kaoma said in an interview that the Kafue-based company would soon start mining iron ore at Nsanje Hill for the production of steel products.
He explained that the company was focused to produce more than 120, 000 tonnes of steel per annum.
“We will be mining iron ore at Nsanje Hill, five kilometres from Lusaka South and we will be taking it to Kafue steel plant where we produce sponge iron from there then add value to it and have the steel product,
“Demand for steel is still low in Zambia but it is also growing. The consumption will keep on growing, the most industrialised country in the world is consuming more than 500 kilos of steel per capital and Zambia is only consuming 20 kilos,” he said.
Dr. Kaoma said Zambia exported its steel to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Burundi, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo, making it a hub for steel in the African region.
“The design capacity for the Kafue Steel plant is 250 tonnes but because of energy challenges experienced since 2015, production dropped by one quarter.
“But again with the improvement in energy supply, it will jump to 250 per year. At the moment we only produce steel consumption products,” he said.