In what is a clear “primer” to the mid- to late-November Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC 2021), China has announced a $1 billion financing deal for a steel and manufacturing complex in central Zimbabwe. The Chivhu project, when fully built, will feature: a hydropower dam; a short rail line; a mining/ore reducing facility; a steel production facility; and ultimately a completely new city of 15,000.
Centered in Chivhu, about 100km south of Harare, the nation’s capital, the project is under the control of Afrochine Smelting, a division of Tsingshan Holding Group. Quoted in the Zimbabwe Herald, Afrochine project manager Benson Xu explained that the company is already Zimbabwe’s biggest chrome smelter, while THG produces 25% of global steel. Benson estimates that the Chivhu complex will create 4,000 permanent jobs, plus potentially 10,000 more with upstream and downstream opportunities.
From the press write-up Oct. 18, Benson said, “We already have funds enough to see the setting up of the project, and you may have heard the figure of$1 billion. That is for the first phase, and we are ready to increase the investment in the following five years,” adding, “We are ready for the groundbreaking ceremony in the next couple of months and weeks, and the commissioning will take place in December 2022.”
