{"id":266743,"date":"2025-11-27T14:23:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/?p=266743"},"modified":"2025-11-27T18:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:04:19","slug":"ppc-reassures-investors-zimbabwe-import-permits-wont-impact-cement-volumes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/builder\/ppc-reassures-investors-zimbabwe-import-permits-wont-impact-cement-volumes\/","title":{"rendered":"PPC reassures investors: Zimbabwe import permits won’t impact cement volumes"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post<\/a> was originally published on this site<\/a><\/p>

<\/p>\n

PPC is unfazed by import permits granted in Zimbabwe, saying these will not affect its volumes in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zimbabwe is facing constrained supply of cement, prompting the government to issue import permits for the construction industry raw material.<\/span><\/p>\n

This had raised fears that this could disrupt volumes for local manufacturers, including PPC, which is the biggest producer of cement in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

PPC CEO <\/span>Matias Cardarelli<\/span> said in an interview that the granting of import licences by the government was understandable given shortages on the market.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cardarelli said, <\/span>\u201c<\/span>I understand the reaction from the government<\/span> to issue <\/span>some imp<\/span>ort <\/span>permits<\/span> <\/span>tempora<\/span>rily <\/span>but also, I believe that the tariffs are very important in terms of local producers to be able to plan the investment moving forward for the future<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

PPC has just received a $20 million (R343m) half-year dividend from its Zimbabwe unit and has just completed a plant performance improvement exercise there.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Cardarelli said the cement shortages in Zimbabwe were not attributable to PPC capacity issues but to rival operators. Lafarge has exited Zimbabwe, with local businessmen taking over the operation and re-branding it as Khaya Cement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Well, the point is that it’s not because of us.<\/span> <\/span>You know that it was <\/span>the<\/span> former La<\/span>f<\/span>arge, and other <\/span>(local) <\/span>competitors that we are not able to produce to<\/span> <\/span>the technical capacity<\/span> they <\/span>supposedly they have<\/span>,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

PPC was now working on an improved <\/span>efficiency<\/span> program in Zimbabwe and pivoted to a three-year plan at the Colleen Bown plant. The program would also raise capacity and reduce production costs for the company\u2019s operation in Zimbabwe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We have a three-year plan in our Colleen Bown plant that is looking at increasing capacity and reducing production costs,\u201d Cardarelli said in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company, however, has to brace for potential disruption for its Zimbabwe market as Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote has signed a deal to develop a cement manufacturing plant in the country. Chinese companies are also setting up cement plants in Zimbabwe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cardarelli, nonetheless, believes PPC is well positioned to stay ahead of the competition as it focuses on \u201cquality revenues\u201d and lowering costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the half year period to the end of September, <\/span>the JSE-listed <\/span>PPC lifted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) by<\/span> 23.5% to R983 million. This was after <\/span>overall <\/span>revenues for the period quickened 6.2% to above R5 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Headline earnings per share (HEPS) adjusted for unrealised foreign exchange losses for the half year firmed up by 32% to 29 cents while net cash inflow before financing activities increased by 32% to R661m.<\/span><\/p>\n

PPC <\/span>has <\/span>attributed this to strong operational momentum although the HEPS performance had been impacted by non-cash unrealised foreign exchange losses on foreign exchange contracts taken out to hedge US dollar exposure on the construction of the new Western Cape plant.<\/span><\/p>\n

BUSINESS REPORT<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PPC is unfazed by import permits granted in Zimbabwe, saying these will not affect its volumes in the country.Zimbabwe is facing constrained supply of cement, prompting the government to issue import permits for the construction industry raw material.This had raised fears that this could disrupt volumes for local manufacturers, including PPC, which is the biggest producer of cement in the country.PPC CEO Matias Cardarelli\u00a0said in an interview that the granting of import licences by the government was understandable given shortages on the market.Cardarelli said,\u00a0\u201cI understand the reaction from the government\u00a0to issue\u00a0some import\u00a0permits\u00a0temporarily\u00a0but also, I believe that the tariffs are very important in terms of local producers to be able to plan the investment moving forward for the future.\u201dPPC has just received a $20 million (R343m) half-year dividend from its Zimbabwe unit and has just completed a plant performance improvement exercise there. \u00a0Cardarelli said the cement shortages in Zimbabwe were not attributable to PPC capacity issues but to rival operators. Lafarge has exited Zimbabwe, with local businessmen taking over the operation and re-branding it as Khaya Cement.\u201cWell, the point is that it’s not because of us.\u00a0You know that it was\u00a0the\u00a0former Lafarge, and other\u00a0(local)\u00a0competitors that we are not able to produce to\u00a0the technical capacity\u00a0they\u00a0supposedly they have,\u201d he said.PPC was now working on an improved\u00a0efficiency program in Zimbabwe and pivoted to a three-year plan at the Colleen Bown plant. The program would also raise capacity and reduce production costs for the company\u2019s operation in Zimbabwe.\u201cWe have a three-year plan in our Colleen Bown plant that is looking at increasing capacity and reducing production costs,\u201d Cardarelli said in an interview.The company, however, has to brace for potential disruption for its Zimbabwe market as Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote has signed a deal to develop a cement manufacturing plant in the country. Chinese companies are also setting up cement plants in Zimbabwe.Cardarelli, nonetheless, believes PPC is well positioned to stay ahead of the competition as it focuses on \u201cquality revenues\u201d and lowering costs.During the half year period to the end of September,\u00a0the JSE-listed PPC lifted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) by\u00a023.5% to R983 million. This was after\u00a0overall\u00a0revenues for the period quickened 6.2% to above R5 billion.Headline earnings per share (HEPS) adjusted for unrealised foreign exchange losses for the half year firmed up by 32% to 29 cents while net cash inflow before financing activities increased by 32% to R661m.PPC\u00a0has\u00a0attributed this to strong operational momentum\u00a0although the HEPS performance had been\u00a0impacted by non-cash unrealised foreign\u00a0exchange losses on foreign exchange contracts taken out to hedge US dollar exposure\u00a0on the construction of the new Western Cape plant.BUSINESS REPORT<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-builder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266744,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266743\/revisions\/266744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}