03 Dec 2015

Pula Steel technical director Mr Ranvir Verma said Botswana being a landlocked country is surrounded by huge markets to which it can export billets produced locally.

Briefing Bobirwa Sub district councillors at the plant in Selebi Phikwe, Mr Verma said the markets which the company can target include Botswana s neighbouring countries being South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and others with a total population of over 100 million which can support the business. Pula Steel is an initiative of the BCL mine Pollaris II project which produces billets from scrap metals obtained locally.

He said his company is not scared of any competition either from China or Indian and elsewhere because their products meet standards set by Botswana Bureau of Standards. Mr Verma said soon they will be casting any type of metal be it aluminium, nickel, tin and others because it has the state of art laboratory.

He stated that BCL currently exports nickel to Norway and next year his company will be ready to work locally at a very cheap price thus it will also create employment for local people.
He told councillors that sludge produced during the heating process can be used to make bricks and cement.

Pula Steel produces 240 tons of billets per day under one shift with 250 workers and would as of next year run a double shift in the second phase with up to 1000 workers. The technical director says scrap should not be sold out of the country but to his company and appealed to the councillors to spread the message to their constituents.

The company currently exports its products to South Africa with other interested parties in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Asia.

Meanwhile Bobirwa sub district council chairperson Mr Nathaniel Moribame commended the company saying it had benefited people in the SPEDU area in terms of employment creation and that the exports will add to the country’s foreign exchange. Ends