Building and Construction Brief Zimbabwe

1 1 Building and Construction Brief Zimbabwe Last Updated March 2011 Compiled By T. Saungweme 2 THE Building AND Construction SECTOR IN Zimbabwe Introduction The Building and Construction sector comprises of all companies that are involved in either the manufacturing or provision of Construction materials and/or services. These include manufacturers of cement, paints, window & door frames, steel reinforcements; prefabricated structures, tiles, roofing materials and accessories ( timber & asbestos, screws and nails), plumbing material, etc.

2 Building contractors, architectures, civil and mechanical engineers, etc are examples of service providers in the Construction industry. An economic sector overview The 2009 world recession and a decade of national economic melt down that was experienced in Zimbabwe until early 2008 left many Construction projects around the country undeveloped. Low savings emanating from little to no disposable incomes impacted negatively on the private sectors local demand for Building materials and Construction services.

3 Unprecedented high levels of government debt coupled with zero external financial handouts spared not the public sector projects most of which were abandoned. Liquidity challenges to recapitalize and adopt state of the art technology have translated into minimum sector output and service exports. It is imperative, however, to note that the Construction sector is among the sectors which have been on the recovering path in 2010. This has been evidenced by the reappearance of Construction tenders in the media.

4 HS code classification of Building materials No. HS Code Product description 1. 2505 2523 Natural sands of all kinds Cement, aluminous cement and phosphate cement 2. 3208 3211 Paints and vanishes Prepared driers1 1 Prepared driers are mixtures used to accelerate the drying of certain paints or vanish by facilitating the oxidation of the drying oil. 3 3. 3917 3918 3925 Plastic tubes, pipes, hoses and fittings Floor coverings of plastics Builders ware of plastics 4.

5 4009 Rubber tubes, pipes and hoses 5. 4403/08/12/18 Wood timber related to Construction 6 48193010 Bags for bagging cement in bulk 7. 6810 Articles of cement, articles of stone and concrete Building blocks and bricks 8. 6811 6811. 10 6811. Articles of asbestos cement, fibre cement Corrugated sheets Tubes, pipes and tube or pipe fittings 9. 69 6901 6902 6904 6905 Ceramic Products2 Bricks, blocks, tiles and other ceramic goods of siliceous fossil meals Refractory bricks, blocks and tiles Building bricks Roofing tiles 10 70169 Paving blocks, slabs, bricks, squares, tiles and articles of pressed glass 11.

6 7208/09/16/19 Iron and steel Construction related products 12. 7301 7308. 10 7308. 20 7308. 30 7308. 40 Articles of iron & steel related to Construction Bridges & bridge sections Towers & Lattice masts Doors, windows, & their frames and thresholds for doors Equipment for scaffolding, shattering, or propping. Wire nails, in strips or rolls Steel nails, hardened Other wire nails, galvanised Hexagon Head Wood Screws Other wood screws, of stainless steel Other wood screws 13. 7412 Fittings, pipe or tube of refined copper 14 7610 Aluminium and articles thereof for Construction 15.

7 8301 8302 8302. Cylinder locks used on doors in buildings mountings and fittings for buildings Hinges Automatic doors in buildings 16 84262000 Tower cranes Classification of Building materials by product: Iron & steel, aluminium and other metal related products Wood related products Asbestos and related products Cement and articles thereof Plumbing material and fittings 2 The term ceramic products applies to products obtained: (a) by firing inorganic, non-metallic materials which have been prepared and shaped previously at, in general, room temperature.

8 Raw materials comprise, inter alia, clays, siliceous materials, etc; (b) from rock steatite, fired after shaping. 4 Paint and varnishes Bricks and pavings Plastic materials Geographical Spread Building and Construction companies and service providers are widely spread through out the country but have a higher concentration in Harare, Bulawayo and several other cities and towns. The geographical spread out depends mainly on the product, service or activity being considered. Statistical analysis of the current companies in the database indicate that 67% of the companies (excluding timber & wood companies, cement companies) are in Harare, 22% are in Bulawayo and 11% are located in other cities and towns.

9 Those in wood and timber related products are highly centred in the Eastern Highlands, which is certainly explained by resource endowment of the area. Major players in Building and Construction sector No. Category Major Players 1 Iron & steel, aluminium and other metal related products Almin Metal Industries Ltd Double Bridge Steel makers in Zimbabwe Ziscosteel Steelbase Lancashire Steel Crittal hope Astra steel, Steel Force 2 Wood related products PG Industries Allied Timber Border Timbers Wattle Company ARDA Nyanga Timbers Timberland Lupane Timbers 5 3 Asbestos and related products Turnal Fibre Cement Zimtile 4 Cement and articles thereof Lafarge (Pvt)

10 Ltd, Sino Cement Sino Zimbabwe Portland Cement Fort Concrete Hume Pipe 5 Plumbing material and fittings Turnal Fibre Cement Tube & pipe Stainless Steel Zimcast, Clay products 6 Paint, glues and varnishes All paint imports have the following duties: Duty 15%, VAT 15% Trinidad industries Dulux Astra Chroma 7 Bricks and ceramic products Beta bricks Wildale bricks McDonald bricks Clay Products ltd 8 Plastic materials Proplastics Treger Prodorite 9 Building Contractors John Sisk & Son (Pvt)