Dunlop Zimbabwe Ends South Africa Toll Agreement

For several years Dunlop Zimbabwe has operated a toll manufacturing agreement – an arrangement under which foreign firms provide raw material finances so that Zimbabwean companies can manufacture products for them – with the Apollo Tyres subsidiary in South Africa. At the time of the scheme’s launch in 2006 the toll agreement was necessary for the company’s survival, yet since then Dunlop Zimbabwe’s fortunes have improved. Now the company has announced it has sufficient funds to import raw materials on its own and sustain its operations, and thus it has ended its South African toll manufacturing agreement.

“Dunlop has moved away from toll manufacturing. Dunlop is now servicing the South African market as a standard export market,” said Dunlop Zimbabwe managing director Kennedy Mandevani. “The credit lines we are getting from South Africa have enabled us to do this.” Since receiving a license from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in November 2008, Dunlop Zimbabwe has been entitled to sell its products in foreign currency.