eBusiness Weekly
Fradreck Gorwe
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange- listed cement manufacturer and Southern Africa’s leading cement supplier, Pretoria Portland Cement Zimbabwe (PPC.zw), has germinal roots in the 1892 establishment of De Eerste Cement Fabrieken Beperkt in South Africa to operate the Pretoria cement factory.
Paul Kruger, then president of the Transvaal Republic, had given permission to Edouard Lippert to set up a local cement factory on the outskirts of Pretoria in 1888.
The company changed name to The First Portland Cement Factory in 1908 before it got listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as PPC in 1910.
In 1913, Premier Portland Cement Company was founded in Bulawayo, as the country’s first cement producing company. First products found their way to Wankie Colliery in 1914, then packed in jute bags.
By 1916 expansion into the region had started with exports to Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and the Belgian Congo.
PPC Limited initially acquired an interest in Premier Portland in 1918.
A second and rival company, Rhodesia Cement Limited (Rhocem), was established in Colleen Bawn in 1946 and it commenced cement production in 1949 with capacity of 80 000 tonnes per annum.
In 1947, PPC Zimbabwe got listed on the local bourse.
In 1950 a new kiln was established at Cement Siding whose production capacity of 80 000 tonnes per annum matched that of Rhocem. Demand was high with major construction projects during the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
With the demise of the Federation in 1963, demand plummeted by almost 50 percent. Production capacity followed the downward trend and as a result Premier Portland and Rhocem merged assets to rationalise production.
This ushered in the formation of United Portland Cement and the birth of the Unicem brand in 1965. Each of the two companies held a 50 percent stake.
Upon independence in 1980 Rhodesia Cement changed name to Portland Holdings Limited (PHL).
In 1982, PPC sold entire shareholding in Premier Portland to PHL but continued to provide technical support.
Cement demand boosted in the 1970s to 90s, resulting in the upgrading of production and handling facilities at the Bulawayo and Colleen Bawn plants.
In 2001, PPC acquired full ownership of PHL, making the latter its wholly owned subsidiary. The acquisition was part of an expansion strategy meant to transform the company into a leading supplier of cement in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
As demand grew the company focused on upgrading the plants. In February 2010 the old rotary clinker cooler at Colleen Bawn was replaced by a state of the art hydraulic operated grate cooler. A new computer system of German origin was also adopted that resulted in enhanced output. The Siemens PCS S7 replaced the Siemens S5 PLC and is unmatched in the Southern African Cement Industry.
Further, feasibility studies for the establishment of another plant commenced in 2013. This ushered in the commissioning of an US$85 million plant in Msasa in 2016.
This reportedly doubled PPC Zimbabwe’s annual production capacity to 1,4 million tonnes. The existing Bulawayo and Colleen Bawn plants already had a combined annual capacity of 700 000 tonnes.
Cementitious brands courtesy of PPC Zimbabwe and initially distributed from the Bulawayo factory include SureBuild, Unicem and PMC.
Pursuant to the recent reclassification of counters by ZSE, the company now falls under the materials index. As updated on January 20, 2020, the counter holds a market capitalisation of $145 617 050 and a share price of 392,64 cents.
Roland van Wijnen is the current group chief executive officer.
