[SMM Chromium Flash] NRZ Commissions Refurbished Wagons Under $2.8m Zimasco Rail Partnership

Zimbabwe's National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has increased its operational capacity following the refurbishment of 100 high-sided wagons and three locomotives under a US$2.8 million public-private partnership with ferrochrome producer Zimasco. The refurbished rolling stock was commissioned in Harare on Thursday by Transport Minister Felix Mhona.

Mhona described the partnership as an innovative financing model that revives idle railway assets without placing an immediate burden on the Treasury, while securing a reliable export route for Zimasco's chrome through the ports of Beira and Maputo. "This partnership exemplifies a win-win financial engineering model. By funding the overhaul of idle wagons in exchange for freight charge offsets, Zimasco has secured a reliable supply chain route to international markets," Mhona said, adding that NRZ had expanded its operational capacity without an immediate fiscal burden on the Treasury.

The minister described rail as the cheapest and safest mode of moving bulk cargo, saying the investment would help ease logistics bottlenecks, protect rehabilitated roads from damage caused by heavy trucks, and improve the competitiveness of Zimbabwean chrome exports. He urged other mining companies to adopt similar partnership models, noting that government, working with the Mutapa Investment Fund, is pursuing larger rail recapitalisation projects, including track and signalling upgrades and new locomotives through Afreximbank. Separately, Mhona said US$10 million had been secured for the Chicualacuala-Plumtree and Machipanda-Harare railway lines through tripartite cooperation involving Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, and that cooperation with South Africa on the North-South Corridor had also been revived.