By CHATULA KANGALI –
DANGOTE Cement Zambia Limited has engaged Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL) to transport 2000 tonnes of cement and 500 tonnes of coal every month.
ZRL is now transporting cement from Ndola to Lusaka and coal from Batoka to Ndola using the rail line on behalf of the cement manufacturing company.
ZRL chief executive officer Christopher Musonda said the company had signed a contract with Dangote to transport the cement and the coal.
“We have a good businesses relationship with Dangote. We have a contract with them to move cement and coal, we hope we can grow it further and make it strong. We are discussing how we can improve figures in terms of cement and coal per day,” he said.
Mr Musonda was speaking in an interview after the tour of the cement plant on Friday last week.
Dangote Cement plant official Prakash Sharma said the company was using the rail line to transport part of its cement because it was cheaper and competitive.
Mr Sharma said the company was still using its trucks to transport the commodity around the country.
Dangote Cement is the third company to produce cement in Zambia after Lafarge and Zambezi Portland Cement.
The company has a production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year, a workforce of about 1,200 and haulage of more than 500 trucks.
The company also runs a 30-megawatt coal-fired power plant which has a daily consumption of 400 tonnes of coal.
