ZAMBIA: Zambezi Portland slashes cement price

ZAMBEZI Portland Cement (ZPC) has reduced the retail price of cement from K78 to K70 to make the product affordable to customers.

And ZPC, which has 500 workers, plans to expand its production capacity from 1,400 to 1,800 tonnes of cement per day.

ZPC marketing and sales director Valerio Ventriglia said in a statement on Monday that the cost of cement will reduce even further from the current price.

“Our appeal to customers is that they can come and purchase cement on a reduced retail price from K78 to K70,” he said.

Mr Ventriglia said ZPC would continue to produce high quality cement for the local market.

And Mr Ventriglia said the company plans to expand its production capacity to 1,800 from the current 1,400 tonnes of cement per day.

“We hope to increase our production capacity level to 1,800 tonnes of cement per day by next month,” he said.

After taking over the cement plant that broke the monopoly in the cement industry in Zambia, the new management plans to reach the 1,800 production capacity of 2012.

Mr Ventriglia said an additional 50 employees have been engaged by the company to assist in repairing the damaged equipment at the plant.

“Some of the equipment was dysfunctional and we are working on repairing the machinery to ensure we are back on track, a lot of work has been done so far,” he said.