General Beltings capacity utilisation up to 66 percent on Zimplats deal

Listed manufacturer of conveyor belts, General Beltings Holdings says a deal with Zimplats to provide the platinum miner with specialized equipment has allowed it to improve production levels, improving its capacity utilisation to 66 percent.

Zimplats is Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum producer, it is providing GB with technical support to manufacture and supply specialized fire resistant and anti-static conveyor belts.

The company’s capacity utilisation fell to as low as 10 percent in 2013 as it had to battle competition from cheap imports.

Managing director, Willard Tsuroh told journalists after the company’s annual general meeting that production levels had improved as a result of the arrangement.

“Production is not yet steady but it has improved greatly. We are not yet there fully but we can go for like three weeks in a month at 66 percent capacity utilisation with two shifts running in the factory,” said Tsuroh.

“Sometimes we have a period when we do not have raw materials either from a logistics or funding point which results in gaps in the supply of raw materials then capacity utilisation can drop to as low as 30 percent.”

Tsuroh said turnover in the five months to May had improved by 47 percent compared to the same period last year.

GB is the sole manufacturer of conveyor belts in Zimbabwe and the second such plant in Africa.

It also has two subsidiaries — Pigott Maskew, which produces rubber and Cernol Chemicals.-The Source

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