FERRO Alloys Corporation Limited, a manganese processing plant in Kabwe, is set to re-open next month after suspending operations last December on account of “astronomical” electricity tariffs and low commodity prices. The firm runs and operates a manganese processing plant based in the mine area of Kabwe in Central Province. “We add value to manganese ore, most of which we source from Central Province, to produce ferro and silico manganese. 95 per cent of our products are exported and the prices of the products are determined by international markets. FACL employs 200 workers directly and 400 workers through suppliers and contractors. Our plant operates a 6.5Mva submerged electric arc furnace, therefore, electricity accounts for about 30 per cent of our overhead costs,” FACL commercial executive and company spokesperson Katimba Chisanga stated in December.  

“The Energy Regulation Board approved Zesco’s application for a tariff increment [and] the increment represents an increment of over 200 per cent. Our plant cannot sustain such increase in the cost of electricity. It is, therefore, imperative that we close the plant indefinitely with immediate effect and all employees will, therefore, be laid off and put the plant on care and maintenance.” The hike followed President Edgar Lungu’s directive to the ERB that electricity tariffs be immediately raised to a cost-reflective level to attract new investments in the energy sector, and the energy regulator allowed Zesco to hike the tariffs by up to 70 per cent. But in an interview on Sunday, Chisanga said in view of the electricity tariffs that had been revised downwards, FACL would resume operations “immediately all the key personnel is put in place”. “We had suspended operations in light of the increase in electricity tariffs by [the] ERB. But as you know, the President announced that the tariffs be reversed and due to the fact that we have been closed for a couple of months, it’s quite a delicate process to resume operations because we had laid off all the workers,” Chisanga said. “We are in the process of re-employing the workers and bringing back all the [foreign] experts that were laid off in order for us to start the operations of the plant immediately all the key personnel is put in place; we are hoping maybe as early as April. Some of the key personnel had actually gone back to India after the plant suspended operations.”  Asked whether the workers were paid their dues, Chisanga said: “Those that were eligible were given what is due to them. All in all, the total number of employees is about 200; we have about 180 employees that were on contract and about 20 or so that were casual workers.”

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• [Editor:Sophie]