CHAMWE KAIRA
Ohorongo Cement, which has a production capacity of more than one million tonnes of cement per year, has no immediate plans to expand its operations.
“There are no immediate expansion plans. We can do more than one million tonnes of cement per year,” Rudolf Coetzee, general administration manager told Observer Money.
Regarding some of the challenges that the company faces in transporting cement, the company said the challenges with railway transportation is linked to the challenges experienced by TransNamib.
“We do have a good relationship with TransNamib, and the focus is on maintaining the relationship to the benefit of both,” said Coetzee.
Ohorongo Cement is the first of Namibia’s cement manufacturers and owns one of the most modern cement plants in Africa. Ohorongo commenced production in December 2010.
Some of building built with Ohorongo Cement recently have included Nedbank Namibia’s Windhoek head office that even earned a groundbreaking six-star rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa, making it Namibia’s first building to achieve this distinction.
In 2021, Ohorongo Cement, one of TransNamib’s key customers, noted the achievements of TransNamib and Ohorongo Cement’s partnership namely the 100 % movement of cement on rail from Otavi to Ondangwa as well as the 100% movement of coal on rail from Walvis Bay to Otavi.
At that time, TransNamib made available 45 wagons for the standard train between Tsumeb and Ondangwa.
TransNamib announced last month that it had successfully met all conditions to access the secured funding of N$2.6 billion from the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). This significant financial boost will enable the company to address its locomotive capacity challenges effectively. With this acquired funding, TransNamib will initiate the process to enhance its locomotive fleet.
Specifically, the loan will be used for the remanufacturing of rolling stock, acquisition of new rolling stock, modernisation of the TransNamib workshop and upgrading of signalling equipment, including spares and associated equipment. TransNamib’s plans to procure new rolling stock and equipment, construction of a new railway line to replace the old railway line between Kranzberg and Otjiwarong will commence towards the end of the 2024 calendar year as undertaken by the Ministry of Works and Transport.
This project will have a follow-up phase extending all the way to Tsumeb. Additionally, a new signalling system is planned for the network to increase safety and line capacity, with a primary focus on the busy routes leading to the ports of Namibia.
