PPC RUNNING AT 80% OF OPERATIONAL CAPACITY IN SPITE OF UPTICK IN DEMAND

JSE-LISTED local cement company PPC said yesterday that it was running at 75 to 80 percent of active capacity, despite an uptick in demand, amid a constrained environment, but its turnaround strategy and adapting to Covid-19 challenges had helped its operational flexibility. Njombo Lekula, the managing director of Southern Africa, PPC, said: “PPC has set itself up so that we can switch on plants to respond to demand. It removes the previous misalignment of supply with demand. The Three Mega Plant strategy has set up the business to be able to operate in those times when supply exceeds demand. We also have mothballed capacity.

Around 35 percent of our capacity is not being utilised. And I believe 40 percent of capacity is not being used in South Africa,” said Lekula. PPC was also seeking solutions on tariff protection from cheap imports and the designation of locally produced cement, which required contractors to use it for government projects and banned the use of imported cement for them. “From the information we have, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition has supported our (tariff) application and what remains is for that designation to be gazetted.” | Philippa Larkin