Sable Chemicals readies to trim imports Rehab exercise to yield 200k tons/year

AMMONIUM Nitrate (AN) fertiliser manufacturer, Sable Chemicals Industries, has made significant strides in refurbishing its plant in a bid to increase production to about 200 000 tons per year as the country seeks to become self-sufficient and reduce imports.

The Kwekwe-based company is retooling its plant after securing a US$11 million loan fund from the African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) last year.

Sable stopped production some time ago to pave way for the ongoing refurbishment exercise that is expected to be completed by December this year. After the refurbishment project Sable Chemicals is expected to produce about 200 000 tons up from 50 000 tons of AN.

Revitalising the local fertiliser industry is part of Government measures to accelerate the implementation of the Five-Year Fertiliser Import Substitution Roadmap implemented in 2020 up to 2024.

Minister of State in the Office of the President and Cabinet responsible for Monitoring and Implementation of Special Agriculture Projects, Davis Marapira, recently toured the plant and expressed satisfaction with progress being made.

“I am satisfied with what I saw during the tour of the plant and I have seen there is steady progress in the refurbishment of the plant,” he said.

“This is a project the Government is taking seriously as we seek to be self-reliant in the supply of AN. We are on the right track as I have seen various projects at various stages of completion, which shows that there is work being done.”

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Minister Davis Marapira
However, the minister expressed concern over the timeframe for the completion of the project as it will be right in the middle of the 2022/23 summer farming season.

“My biggest worry is the timeframe for the completion of this project. As you are aware there has been a lot of disturbances due the Russia-Ukraine war and we are not getting our fertilisers from our usual sources,” he said.

“We, therefore, need to push the project so that we can start production,”Minister Marapira promised to ensure the company gets working capital, which is its biggest ndoing and likely to hinder production once the refurbishments are done.

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He also said Sable Chemicals will create employment after the refurbishment exercise compounded by its expansion programme that will see the company venturing into dairy production, solar plant and sanitisers manufacturing plant.

sanitiser
The company has 300 workers.
While the dairy and the solar plant are still in the pipeline, the sanitisers plant is already producing.

Chief executive officer, Mr Bothwell Nyajeka, said the fund was channelled towards the acquisition of tankers that carry ammonia from Mozambique ports while the other portion was used for plant refurbishment.

He said production, though at a lower scale, is expected to commence by the end of June when major renovations have been completed adding the company remains committed to ensure the import substitution programme becomes a reality.

“The company has fully drawn down on the loan that was advanced by Afreximbank and the plant refurbishment programmes should be completed by December 2022,” he said.
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Solar plant
“After that we will be able to produce at least 200 000 tons of AN in line with the AN import substitution programme that was approved by the Government.

“We remain committed to make this dream a reality and with the support from the Government, we will certainly achieve,” said Mr Nyajeka.

The import substitution roadmap largely focuses on ramping up production at Sable
Chemicals and Chemplex Phosphate to reduce fertiliser imports. In a good season, the
country requires about 600 000 tons of fertiliser while basal compound fertilisers
constitute 350 000 tons with the remainder being AN.-The Chronicle