Sek/T’di: Cement shortage looms as thieves attack power cables for Ghacem

-
Ghana’s leading cement producing factory GHACEM in Takoradi has been operating without direct power supply from the Electricity Company of Ghana since November 5, 2017 till date.
The factory is currently relying on a generator set which can only power the packaging plant.
Due to the lack of adequate power the two production plant – Mil 4 and Mil 5 – are not working.
The situation has arisen as a result of a cut in the underground cables supplying power to the company.
That underground cable supplies power to the two production plants at the factory.
This came to the fore when the Western Regional Minister Dr. Kweku Afriyie and his deputy Mrs. Eugenia Gifty Kusi visited GHACEM to familiarize themselves with the operations of the company.
According to the operational support expert at GHACEM, Mr. Fred Oboe Sam, the cut in the underground cable has heavily affected the company’s ability to produce cement on a large scale.
“As we speak we produce cement only at dawn. And the amount of money we are losing due to our inability to produce on a large scale is unimaginable”.
He explained that “their production levels have dropped sharply from 1.2 million tonnes in 2013 to only 8000 tonnes in 2017”.
“This is certainly not what we envisaged for this year… we have five plants but currently only two plants are in operation which means that our output is now less than 50 percent which not encouraging”.
But the current power challenge is not what GHACEM has to contend with. Mr. Oboe Sam stated that production levels are dropping due to unfair market practices.
According to him “some competing cement companies are importing onto the Ghanaian market less quality cements and selling them to unsuspecting customers at cheap prices.
“Others too try to avoid paying the right duties when they import these cements”.
He hinted GHACEM may consider downsizing its workforce if it continues to experience drops in production levels.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Six feared dead as ambulance crushes into tipper truck (PHOTOS)

-
Image
At least six persons on board an ambulance truck are feared dead in a gory accident which occurred at Apowa –Beahu stretch of road in   Ahanta West district, western region. The gory accident which occurred just this afternoon has claimed the life of two nurses, a sick person, two relatives of the sick person and a co-driver of the ambulance. The accident occurred when the ambulance which was conveying a sick person from Axim to Effia Nkwanta Hospital, mysteriously lost it balance and collided with an articulated truck with the  registration number GT - 7348-15. The accident left, the ambulance with the registration number GV 1453 – 14 being  crushed and shredded into parts with sight of lifeless bodies. An eyewitness who narrated the event leading to the accident said the ambulance was conveying a sick person from Discove to Effia Nkwanta Hospital upon reaching Beahu, the cars were trying to pave way for the ambulance truck.   But the...
Read more

Commuters shun Sekondi-Takoradi train shuttle

-
Image
  A year after the inauguration of the train shuttle service between Sekondi and Takoradi, the Ghana Railway Company (GRC) is yet to break even due to low patronage of the service by commuters.  The GRC is currently operating at a loss and its income is not enough to meet liabilities such as the salaries of workers, fuel and maintenance costs. The service, which is expected to run throughout the day, night and weekends, currently operates only morning and evening sessions between Monday and Friday, with cabins mostly empty or half full. The low patronage has also been attributed to the direction of development of the city, which is heading inland as against the operations of the shuttle which are limited to the coast — from the Takoradi Harbour to Kojokrom, Sekondi. Interestingly, inland areas such as Apowa, Kansawurodu, Anaji, Bu, Kwesimintsim, Ntankoful, Aseike, among others, do not have rail lines incorporated into the planning of the city. Some commuters in the Twin Ci...
Read more

Wassa Akropong: Woman 27 years, peppered in the genitalia for shop lifting.

-
Image
A  27 year old Janet Oteng, has been lynched  by some irate youths of Wassa Akropong of the Amenfi East District for stealing a blue jeans  trouser and pairs of G- String panties from a boutique. Janet Oteng was cought sneaking out of the shop with the panties in her under wear and the jeans trousers in a polythene bag. An eyewitness to the theft triggered an alert when she was pursued to explain how she got the said items from the shop.  She was however unable to provide proof of purchase, a situation which caused some neighbors and the shop operators to strip her cloths off and insert hot pepper, ginger and other hot local spices into her vagina and other parts of the her body. Jane as she’s affectionately called, “claimed to be a hair dresser in Kumasi and she travels to Wassa Akropong on market days to trade”, an eyewitness said. The police later intervened and the suspect was arrested. Investigations are currently underway.
Read more