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LOCAL cotton products manufacturer Dongienic Porsche Investments (Dongienic) has experienced a 30 percent reduction in production due to power cuts in the Sunway area.
The company has been operating since 2006 producing cotton by-products such as sanitary wear and cosmetic products.

Speaking during a tour of the plant yesterday by the Minister of Small to Medium Enterprises Sithembiso Nyoni, factory manager Abel Chivaura said the company is incurring a major decline in production due to power cuts in the area.

“Our main problem is with electricity, it is a stumbling block. Without electricity we cannot process anything. At the moment we are only running at 40 percent but can run at about 70 percent. Previously we used to produce about 30 tonnes of cotton wool per month and now we are down to 12 tonnes because of power cuts,” he said.

According to Chivaura, Dongienic has been forced to sell their products at higher prices than would have been ideal if there were no power outages.

“If we could get help from government especially in regards to energy we could be in a position to reduce our prices.

“We’ve however not had any price increase since 2011 because we know that if we further increase our prices the end user will not buy,” he said.

He said the company buys water for over $1,000 monthly. They have not received water in the past 5 years.

“We incur $360 weekly for the water which is a bit on the high side and we have to recoup these costs somehow and that means we have to charge the end user.

“We last had water in this area in 2010 because at that time there was a burst water pipe.

“The municipality for Sunway City could not do the repairs for us so we had to do it ourselves because we did not want to stop production.

“Repairing the pipe has cost us close to $40,000 but we still have not had water since,” he said. He added that the costs of the repairs as well as the other problems plaguing the company have had an adverse effect on production levels.

“In this area the power cuts are too numerous which is causing a decline in production. It then becomes very difficult to supply our markets.

“We buy water to keep the facility running and we use between 30 and 40, 000 litres a day. This adds to the cost of our products and we may find it difficult in pricing our products,” he said.-BH24.