by Patience Rashai

Chrome giant, Afrochine is on an expansion drive set to increase the production of chrome in the country as it eyes to commission four smelters by April 2019.

The company which is in the process of constructing two chrome smelters at Selous main plant and two others in Martindale intends to add onto the already three operational smelters on the Selous main plant.

“The 2 Martindale smelters have the capacity to smelt at least 900tonnes of chrome each per day, giving a total of 1 800tonnes per day,” said company director Benson Xu.

“The products to be processed already have a market in China and the company will have an annual production of more than 50,000 tonnes of ferrochrome.

Over the years, the company has managed to create employment for more than 300 people, and the company still intends to build more furnaces in the country depending on the availability of chrome resources.

The country’s major chrome smelting companies are readying to bring their furnaces on line and are in the process of increasing their capacity.

Previously the company has been on record with plans to build a multi-million dollar electricity generation plant in the same (Selous) area to ensure continued power supplies for the plant.

Afrochine Smelting (Pvt), is a subsidiary of Tsingshan Iron and Steel Group of China and the second largest stainless steel producer in the country.