- Zimbabwe earned US$137 million from steel exports in the first half of 2026
- Manhize is operating at 60% capacity and saving about US$500 million in imports
- Rail investment, domestic procurement and ZISCO restructuring will determine the industry’s next phase
Harare- Zimbabwe has earned US$137 million from steel exports in the first half of 2026, already above the US$92.1 million recorded during the whole of 2025, while first quarter exports alone reached US$68.22 million from 190,612 metric tonnes. Dinson Iron and Steel Company’s US$1.5 billion Manhize plant sits at the centre of that recovery, having moved from first pig iron production in June 2024 into billets and steel bars, with Phase One capacity of approximately 600,000 tonnes a year and roughly 60% of current production sold into regional and international markets.
The expansion is beginning to expose the infrastructure demands that accompany higher production. A Manhize official familiar with the company’s expansion plans, who requested anonymity said transport capacity will become increasingly important as production rises.
“Our production capacity can grow faster than the logistics system currently supporting it. At the next phase, rail capacity becomes part of the economics of every tonne we export,” the official said.
Manhize’s emergence has also forced a reassessment of ZISCO, the state owned steelmaker whose furnaces have remained idle for years despite repeated attempts to restore production. An official familiar with the ZISCO restructuring, who spoke by telephone said Redcliff may need a different commercial role from the integrated model it historically operated.
“Redcliff does not necessarily have to reproduce the old ZISCO model. We are assessing where the existing assets can participate commercially in the steel industry that Manhize has already rebuilt.”
The comment moves the ZISCO discussion toward the commercial value of the remaining Redcliff assets, including industrial land, rail infrastructure, rolling mill facilities and other supporting infrastructure whose future depends on what can still be rehabilitated economically and where those assets can fit into an operating steel industry.
Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association president Tinashe Manzungu has also backed the return of domestic steel production, arguing that locally produced steel could lower construction costs where it replaces imported material.
“We are working to close the infrastructure gap as contractors, and this requires huge capital outlay. Manufacturing such products locally will cut costs significantly, making the final products more affordable,” Manzungu said after Manhize began producing reinforcing bars.
Zimbabwe’s steel recovery is therefore being tested across three connected areas: whether Manhize can continue expanding production, whether national logistics can move larger volumes competitively, and whether ZISCO can be given a commercially viable role after years of failed revival programmes.
The Decline: A Timeline of Decisions
Zimbabwe once possessed an integrated steel industry centred on Redcliff, where the steelworks developed from the Iron and Steel Company established in 1942 and later became ZISCO after independence. By the 1980s, annual production had reached about 1.2 million tonnes, supported by an industrial system that extended into iron ore, coke production, rolling mills, engineering skills and downstream steel processing.
Redcliff and Kwekwe developed around that production base, while steel supported construction, engineering and manufacturing across the economy. ZISCO employed thousands of workers directly and supported additional jobs through contractors, suppliers and associated companies, giving the steelworks an economic footprint that extended well beyond its furnaces.
The asset required continuous capital expenditure because blast furnaces, coke ovens and rolling mills operate within defined maintenance and refurbishment cycles. Delayed investment progressively raises operating costs and reduces reliability, and those weaknesses accumulated at ZISCO over several years.
By 1984, ZISCO was the country’s largest foreign currency earning manufacturer and one of the largest recipients of government subsidies. An official enquiry in 1986 subsequently found mismanagement, poor planning and nepotism, while also recording that refurbishment had already been delayed and that the cost of restoring the plant was increasing.
The maintenance deficit became progressively harder to reverse. In 1993, Blast Furnace Number 4, which produced around 70% of ZISCO’s steel, broke down, reducing production sharply while labour, electricity, maintenance and administrative costs continued to be carried by a business operating at much lower capacity.
The deterioration continued through the 2000s as equipment became obsolete, capital requirements rose and skilled employees left. By 2008, production had effectively ceased after years of declining output and deferred investment, leaving Redcliff without its dominant industrial employer, Zimbabwe increasingly dependent on imported steel and technical skills accumulated over decades dispersed across the region.
The failure therefore carried a wider industrial cost alongside ZISCO’s financial deterioration, because Zimbabwe lost domestic steelmaking capacity at the same time that construction, manufacturing and infrastructure continued requiring steel.
The Revival Attempts
The years after ZISCO stopped producing generated repeated attempts to restore the company. Essar Africa Holdings signed a US$750 million agreement in 2011, while a later transaction involving R&F Properties was valued at about US$1 billion, yet neither agreement returned Redcliff to sustained production and other proposed investors also entered negotiations without delivering an operating steelworks.
Each failed cycle left the plant idle for longer and increased the rehabilitation challenge as furnaces, rolling mills, coke facilities and supporting infrastructure deteriorated. The problem facing ZISCO therefore grew beyond finding another investor and increasingly became an asset question centred on what remained commercially usable, what required replacement and which products Redcliff could still produce competitively.
In March 2026, ZISCO was placed under the Mutapa Investment Fund, changing the institutional oversight of the state owned steelmaker while leaving production as the measurable test of the restructuring. The anonymous official’s comments point toward a model in which Redcliff’s future may depend on identifying commercially viable parts of the existing asset rather than rebuilding the previous integrated structure in its entirety.
That assessment will require defined capital requirements, an operator, a product strategy and production deadlines that can be tested against actual implementation. ZISCO has already passed through several investor announcements since 2008, leaving any new restructuring programme with a high burden of proof.
The Manhize Discontinuity
Large scale steel production returned through Manhize outside the ZISCO structure, where Dinson Iron and Steel Company, a subsidiary of China’s Tsingshan Holdings Group, invested an estimated US$1.5 billion in an integrated steel plant near Mvuma.
The first pig iron was produced in June 2024, followed by expansion into billets and steel bars as the operation developed its product range. Phase One provides annual capacity of around 600,000 tonnes, while further expansion would take production materially above current levels and increase the volume of raw materials moving into the plant and finished steel moving to customers.
Manhize also brought a different capital and operating model into Zimbabwe’s steel sector, with the investor financing the plant, supplying technology and connecting production to Tsingshan’s wider industrial and market network. The result has been commercial steel production at a time when successive ZISCO revival programmes had failed to return Redcliff to sustained output.
The change is visible in export volumes. Zimbabwe exported only 413 tonnes of steel in 2024 before exports rose above 140,000 tonnes in the first half of 2025 and continued expanding into 2026 as Manhize increased production and established external customers.
Roughly 60% of Dinson’s production is currently directed to regional and international markets, increasing the importance of transport costs as output rises. Zimbabwe’s domestic construction and manufacturing sectors can absorb part of the production, while larger volumes require efficient access to regional markets where freight, tariffs and border costs form part of the final selling price.
The Manhize official’s warning on logistics therefore goes directly to the economics of expansion. Additional production carries value only when the steel can reach customers at a cost that preserves its competitiveness.
The H1 2026 Export Data
Steel generated US$137 million in export proceeds during the first six months of 2026, above the US$92.1 million recorded during the whole of 2025, providing a measurable economic return from the restoration of domestic steelmaking.
Import substitution adds another channel because Zimbabwe previously relied heavily on imported steel products, creating recurring foreign currency demand from construction, manufacturing and engineering companies. Government estimates have placed the annual foreign currency saving from reduced steel imports at about US$500 million, although that estimate should continue to be tested against actual import data as Manhize’s product range expands.
Zimbabwe still imports specialised steel products and grades that are not produced locally, which means the amount of the import bill displaced by Manhize will depend on the additional products introduced into production. Manzungu’s comments provide the demand side of that process because local reinforcing steel can reduce freight and import costs for contractors where the product meets engineering specifications and remains competitively priced.
Export growth creates another commercial test. Regional customers compare Zimbabwean steel against competing products after transport, tariffs and border costs are included, making production efficiency inside Manhize only one part of the final delivered price.
The wider steel value chain is also generating earnings upstream, with coke and semi coke exports reaching approximately US$102 million during the first half of 2026. Zimbabwe’s coal resources are therefore participating in the recovery through processed industrial inputs as well as domestic steelmaking, extending the chain from coal and iron ore through coke, pig iron, billets and finished steel products. Further processing will determine how much additional economic value remains inside Zimbabwe.
The NRZ Bottleneck
Steel production places heavy demands on freight because iron ore, coal and other inputs must reach the plant in large volumes before finished steel is moved to domestic and export customers. Rail capacity therefore forms part of Manhize’s production economics as the plant moves toward higher utilisation.
Zimbabwe’s railway system has operated for years with ageing locomotives, wagon shortages and sections of deteriorated track, leaving heavy industries increasingly dependent on road transport where rail capacity is unavailable or unreliable. That dependence raises logistics costs and increases pressure on the road network.
Manhize’s first 600,000 tonnes of capacity already creates substantial inbound and outbound freight requirements, while expansion increases both raw material volumes and finished steel shipments. The company official’s warning becomes increasingly relevant at that stage because higher production can be constrained by the cost and reliability of transporting each additional tonne.
“Our production capacity can grow faster than the logistics system currently supporting it. At the next phase, rail capacity becomes part of the economics of every tonne we export.”
The progress of the rail solution can therefore be tested through tonnes moved, freight cost per tonne, wagon availability, turnaround times and delivery reliability. Manhize can improve productivity within the plant, while national transport infrastructure determines how efficiently that output reaches regional customers.
Where the Industry Is Heading
Zimbabwe’s steel industry has returned to commercial production with an operating plant, regional customers and measurable export earnings, leaving the next phase dependent on freight capacity, product expansion and the commercial restructuring of ZISCO.
Manhize’s expansion requires a rail system capable of moving larger volumes of raw materials and finished steel, which means infrastructure progress should be measured through additional freight capacity, lower transport costs and improved delivery reliability rather than investment announcements alone.
Product depth is equally important because pig iron, billets and reinforcing bars establish a production base while greater import substitution requires steel grades and products that Zimbabwe still sources externally. The range manufactured locally will determine how much domestic demand migrates from imports to local production and how much foreign currency can be retained.
Public procurement can support that process where domestically produced steel meets required specifications, quality standards and price thresholds, while maintaining competitive pressure on local producers.
ZISCO remains the third test
Its transfer to Mutapa creates another opportunity to resolve an asset that has remained largely idle since 2008, with the anonymous official’s comments pointing toward a commercial assessment of Redcliff’s existing infrastructure rather than another attempt to recreate its historical operating model.
“Redcliff does not necessarily have to reproduce the old ZISCO model. We are assessing where the existing assets can participate commercially in the steel industry that Manhize has already rebuilt.”
That process requires Government and Mutapa to establish which assets can be rehabilitated economically, what needs replacement, what products Redcliff can manufacture competitively, how much capital is required and who will operate the business.
Another investment announcement without financing, implementation deadlines and production targets would leave ZISCO inside the same cycle that followed earlier revival programmes. A commercially funded restructuring with measurable milestones would give Redcliff a defined role in a steel industry that is already operating elsewhere.
Zimbabwe has possessed the iron ore, coal and limestone required for steelmaking for decades, while Manhize has converted part of that mineral base into an operating industrial asset that earned US$137 million in steel exports during the first half of 2026.
The durability of that recovery can now be measured through annual steel output, export earnings, import displacement, the range of products manufactured locally, rail freight volumes and the commercial plan adopted for ZISCO.
Capital investment, infrastructure and operating discipline will be the determinants of how much Zimbabwe’s mineral endowment is converted into steel produced, sold and exported.
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