All Africa.com reported that Steelmakers Zimbabwe Pvt Limited has made a joint bid of USD 180 million with an Indian company Sunflag Iron & Steel Company Limited for a stake in Zisco Steel.

Mr Tererai Chivodze marketing manager of Steelmakers Zimbabwe said that they were committed to revitalize the giant steel making company which is currently struggling to revive its operations.

He added that "We have made plans to revive Ziscosteel and we have submitted our proposal to the Government and we are still waiting for the response. We are bidding for the tender. If we get a positive response definitely we are ready to work in partnership with the Government."

Meanwhile, Steelmakers has entered into a partnership deal with Sunflag Iron & Steel that is expected to double its production capacity. Zimbabwe's second biggest steelmaker has increased production capacity from around 15% in 2008 to 40% this year.

Mr Chivodze said that "We have four rolling mills with a capacity to produce 100,000 tonnes of steel per annum and we expect to double our production capacity to 200,000 tonnes. We are currently exporting steel to regional markets among them Malawi, South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia. We are exporting 60% of our products."

Sunflag Iron and Steel Co Limited is a unit of the Sunflag Group and runs a state of the art integrated plant at Bhandara, India and has a capacity to produce 200,000 tonnes of steel per annum using iron ore and non coking coal as basic inputs.

(Sourced from www.allafrica.com)