Chinese steel giant bankrolls Zim rail revival

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The Zimbabwean steelmaking unit of Chinese metals giant Tsingshan Holding Group onMonday signed a partnership deal with the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) toexpand capacity for coal and steel haulage, the state logistics company announced.

Tsingshan's Dinson Steel Company, whose $1 billion (R16.6 billion) steel plant in centralZimbabwe started production in 2024, will haul 1.1 million metric tonnes of coal fromHwange, a distance of about 600 km.

The rail upgrade deal also includes the transportation of 600 000 tonnes of steel productsfrom the Dinson plant to various markets in Zimbabwe and the region, the NRZ said in a

statement.Grand Railway Solutions, a subsidiary of the Dinson group, will provide locomotives,wagons and fuel, with the NRZ contributing infrastructure and train crews, the state rail

firm said.

The deal also includes the upgrade of the 80-km track between Gweru and Mvuma, at acost of about $27 million, followed by the construction of a 50-km track linking Mvuma tothe steel plant under a build-operate-transfer model.

Grand Railway Services will fund the construction of the track, transfer it to the NRZ andrecover its costs through offsets.

"This deal is set to significantly increase annual tonnage for NRZ, while at the same timetransferring the bulk of coal traffic from Hwange from road to rail," NRZ said.NRZ has struggled for years due to under-investment by the government and has steppedup collaborations with private logistics firms and its bulk commodity clients to boost freightvolumes, which collapsed from a peak of 12 milion tonnes in the 1990s, to 2 million tonnes

in 2025.