• ZISCO had not submitted financial statements for 2019 through 2025 by June 2026
• Mutapa took control in March 2026 and is developing a new industrial model for the steelmaker
• Dinson already has 600,000 tonnes of annual steel capacity, raising ZISCO’s investment threshold

Harare- The revival of ZISCO is being sequenced without key financial data, with Mutapa Investment Fund developing the commercial case for the steelmaker despite the absence of audited accounts since 2019 and the emergence of a new 600,000-tonne domestic competitor, according to the Auditor-General. As at 24 June 2026, the AG’s report listed ZISCO’s statements for 2019 to 2025 as unsubmitted, with the 2021 to 2025 accounts still outstanding for audit.

The company entered the Mutapa portfolio on 20 March 2026 through Statutory Instrument 58 of 2026. Mutapa’s proposed model relies on integration with state companies, Hwange for coal, NRZ for transport, Sable for inputs, and ZESA for power.

The fund has also stated that the current ZISCO plant is not viable and that any restart would require a new production platform anchored on available resources.

That structure can address several operating constraints that damaged the old business. It does not establish whether another large steel investment will earn an adequate return, and that question has become materially harder to answer because Zimbabwe's steel market has already changed.

The National Development Strategy 2 records Dinson Iron and Steel Company with installed carbon steel capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year, domestic steel production exceeding 50,000 tonnes per month by the third quarter of 2025, a government-estimated import substitution contribution above USD 100 million in 2025, and later phases projected to lift annual capacity to 1.2 million tonnes.

ZISCO is therefore being revived into an industry that already contains a modern integrated producer with material installed capacity, and that changes the investment case fundamentally.

Historical production capacity cannot determine the size of the next ZISCO plant. The required capacity has to follow the products ZISCO can sell competitively, the cost of iron ore and coal, electricity consumption, freight economics, and the demand remaining after domestic production already supplied by Dinson. The product decision has to come before the equipment decision. A large plant built around national symbolism can consume capital for decades. A plant sized around identifiable steel grades, buyers, and cost advantages can establish a measurable return case.

The absence of audited accounts makes that decision harder because the new investor begins without a verified opening balance sheet, and ZISCO carries a history that makes that baseline essential.

The Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Debt Assumption Act recorded USD 494.82 million of ZISCO liabilities as at 31 December 2016, comprising USD 211.91 million in external loans, USD 57.70 million in domestic loans, and USD 219.11 million owed to domestic suppliers, utilities, and statutory bodies, with legislation providing for the state to assume validated and reconciled prior debts.

That debt intervention created a clear historical capital benchmark and means Zimbabwe has already used the sovereign balance sheet to absorb part of ZISCO's previous financial failure. The current revival therefore requires an exact separation between old liabilities assumed by the state, liabilities remaining with ZISCO, and obligations accumulated after the debt assumption cut-off.

Seven missing reporting years prevent the public record from providing that reconciliation. They also weaken asset valuation. ZISCO's next capital structure needs verified values for land, iron ore and limestone claims, subsidiaries, remaining industrial infrastructure, inventories, receivables, and any usable plant, with obsolete equipment requiring impairment or disposal treatment and employee obligations, statutory balances, and environmental liabilities requiring the same reconciliation. Only then can Mutapa determine what portion of the new investment is genuinely productive capital.

A new plant creates a new financing decision whose economics must be tested rigorously. Debt service needs to be tested against forecast steel margins. Equity needs a return hurdle. Power demand needs to be priced. Rail freight needs to be priced. Coal needs to be priced. Ore development needs to be priced. Integration across Mutapa companies can improve access to those inputs, but each input still requires an economic price inside the ZISCO model, because cheap internal transfer prices can make one portfolio company look profitable by moving the cost elsewhere in the state portfolio.

Dinson provides an immediate benchmark: ZISCO's proposed plant should be tested against Dinson's installed capacity, product mix, energy economics, and expected expansion, with the final ZISCO configuration requiring a defined competitive position in flat products, long products, specialised grades, export supply, or downstream feedstock before capacity is determined.

The financial reconstruction has to run ahead of the physical reconstruction, and Mutapa's board should place four conditions ahead of any binding financing decision for a new ZISCO steel plant. The outstanding financial statements for 2019 through 2025 need to be completed and audited. Legacy debt needs to be reconciled against the 2018 debt assumption framework. Core assets and mineral rights need an independent valuation. The proposed plant needs a product-level commercial model benchmarked against existing domestic steel capacity.

No binding plant financing should move ahead of that investment gate, and this discipline has a direct competitive consequence. ZISCO can avoid rebuilding capacity into products already supplied economically by a newer domestic producer and direct capital toward steel grades, feedstock positions, or downstream markets where it can establish a defendable cost advantage.

The next Auditor-General report provides the first measurable governance test. If ZISCO remains in arrears across the same reporting years after capital mobilisation has advanced, Mutapa will be increasing financial exposure before establishing the opening balance sheet against which that capital can be measured. ZISCO has already been rescued from nearly USD 500 million of legacy liabilities. The next revival has to prove its economics before creating the next one.

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