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Martin Kadzere Harare Bureau
The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has reduced power tariff for ferrochrome producers by about 21 percent to improve viability of the firms.

Ferrochrome smelters sought tariff reduction to cushion themselves from depressed global prices. Industry sources told our Harare Bureau that ZETDC and ferrochrome producers agreed on 6,7 cents per kilowatt-hour from 8,5 cents per kilowatt hour.

“A compromise was reached on the electricity charges for smelters; ZETDC had offered a rate of 7,5 cents kWh while producers wanted the tariff reduced to 6,3c kWh,” said the sourced who declined to be named citing the confidentiality nature of the matter.

ZETDC managing director Engineer Julian Chinembiri could not be reached for comment by the time of going to print yesterday.

No comment could also be obtained from the Confederation of Ferrochrome Industries president Reggie Machiya as his mobile phone was not reachable while his deputy Munyaradzi Dube declined to comment on the matter. The CFI has 13 members.

But in an interview early this year, Dube said the depressed global prices were hurting their operations, which has resulted in over two thirds of their members closing down.

“Forty percent of our input costs are electricity and with low prices prevailing on the world markets, this has piled a lot of pressure on the local producers,” said Dube. We’ve 13 members of which nine have closed down; two of them are in judicial management. It’s not a healthy situation.’’

HSBC cut its 2015 ferrochrome price forecast by 7 percent, saying rising production costs have yet to build price support, according to media reports. The bank is forecasting $1,12 per pound in 2015 from $1,20 per lb and a level of $1,18 per lb in 2016.