Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company is the largest

steel works A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It is located just outside

Kwekwe Kwekwe ( ), known until 1983 as Que Que, is a city in the Midlands province of central Zimbabwe. The city has a population of 119,863 within the city limits, as of the 2022 census, making it the 7th-largest city in Zimbabwe and the second-most p ...

, in Redcliff,

Kwekwe District Kwekwe District is a district in Zimbabwe. Location It is found in the Midlands Province, in the central Zimbabwe. Kwekwe, with an estimated population of about 99,200 in 2004, is the capital city of the district. The district capital is located ...

. Over the years the company has faced many operational problems and corruption scandals.

History

In 1942, the colonial government founded the Rhodesian Iron and Steel Commission (Riscom). It was sited at the steel plant at Redcliff, to develop the huge iron and limestone deposits nearby. In 1957, it changed its name to the Rhodesian Iron and Steel Company (Risco). It suffered from a lack of experienced personnel and low level of production which meant high unit costs. In 1954, a debt of 1.7 million pounds sterling had to been written off as irrecoverable. In 1956, the loss-making situation was turned into a profit-making situation due to the formation of the

Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation or CAF, was a colonial federation that consisted of three southern African territories: the Self-governing colony, self-governing British colony of Southe ...

and the denationalisation of the industry. In 1956, iron ore output from the company was 127,954 tons. By 1957, this had doubled to 257,166 tons.Leonard Tow In 1965, the company employed up to 2,900 people. In 1980, after

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

, it was renamed the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO). By 1990 it employed about 5,500 people and indirect employment was around 50,000. It used to export to Europe and Asia as well as neighbouring African countries.

Problems

In 2000, Ziscosteel operated without a fully constituted board. Its

blast furnaces A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric p ...

were no longer functional while its plants and equipment was now obsolete. As of early 2008, the company was producing less than 12,500 tonnes, far below the break-even capacity of 25,000 tonnes.Rich partner for Zisco
(accessed 14 February 2008). By 2010, it could hardly pay its depleted workforce. It has been claimed that more than 200 former workers have died since 2011 because they were unable to pay for medicine or hospital treatment. It was wholly owned by the government of Zimbabwe, until in November 2010, it invited bidders for a 64% stake of the ZISCO group of companies mainly to reduce or liquidate two large debts totalling $340 million, including $240 million to a German bank. 54% of the company is now in the hands of Essar Africa Holdings Ltd (India-based). The government of Zimbabwe still holds 36% and a consortium of private investors holds 10%. Up to 3,000 jobs were saved. The ZISCO group of companies include BIMCO, Lancashire Steel, Frontier Steel, ZISCO Distribution Centre. All these companies are 100% owned by ZISCO. It gets raw materials (such as

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

) from Ripple Creek mine which is about 14 kilometers from ZISCO. Up to 70 million tonnes can be mined. Up to 200 million tonnes of limestone can be found on an open cast mine which is a few meters from ZISCO. Zimbabwe also has reserves of up to 22 billion tonnes of coal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimbabwe Iron And Steel Company Steel companies of Zimbabwe Iron and steel mills Kwekwe District