Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced plans to cut a $1.9 billion steel import bill by reclassifying finished steel products as minerals through amendments to old regulations, which should help local manufacturers add around 120 production capacities. The administration wants major infrastructure projects to buy raw materials domestically instead of importing them, and they are backing Sable Chemicals with a complete plant overhaul to pump out 20,000 tonnes of fertilizer while Mutapa Investment Fund throws $5.3 million at Dorowa Minerals to restart phosphate production.
The cotton sector gets the 30/70 lint agreement, where ginners must sell 30 percent to local spinners before shipping the rest overseas, and sugar producers are getting support to build new mills and ethanol plants. Ncube said the fertilizer import tab hit $331 million last season, so ramping up domestic capacity through ZimPhos granulation plants could bring basal fertilizer output to 470,000 tonnes by late next year.
The cotton sector gets the 30/70 lint agreement, where ginners must sell 30 percent to local spinners before shipping the rest overseas, and sugar producers are getting support to build new mills and ethanol plants. Ncube said the fertilizer import tab hit $331 million last season, so ramping up domestic capacity through ZimPhos granulation plants could bring basal fertilizer output to 470,000 tonnes by late next year.
