The people of Zambia and all around Africa have often expressed their blunt feelings for the Zambezi Portland Cement Factory because it never remained in the news or showed any big developments. However, with the New Year there has been a turnaround for this factory as it has produced one of the best results for heavy scale factories in Africa. As per confirmed reports, ZPC has registered an annual production of 4, 73, 985 tonnes of cement in 2014. The figure indicates achieving 130% of the forecasted output.
Situated in Ndola, ZPC has always remained passive with its contributions. It contributes at a large scale, but never comes to the limelight because it is confined to supplying materials in construction projects. Exceptionally, this time its contribution has been so bog that it is bound to make a big news. The installed capacity of ZPC on annual capacity is around 3, 60, 000 tonnes along with a daily production potential of 1000 tonnes. This time around the same has been achieved with ease.
The production expanded because of the Ndola Housing Project that focused upon building 71 new houses for the people of Ndola who had lost their existing home. Additionally, the production of ZPC takes quality control seriously and has a ZS ISO 9001:2008 certification, which comes from the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS). The recent success has also motivated Dr. Rajan Mahtani to invest in Masaiti by way of constructing a new lime plant in the next 24 months.
**Update**
The Zambezi Portland Cement Factory is now being managed by the minority shareholders, the Ventriglias. They took over the management of the company on April 7, 2015 by force and since then, the situation has degraded continuously. According to the workers, the working conditions have degraded and they are not being paid for their hard work. The factory which had once shown promising result is now at the mercy of the Italian Mafias.