Zimbabwe’s railways once carried the country’s wealth, and a new deal could bring them back to work. The Tsingshan Zimbabwe steel rail partnership to boost haulage capacity was signed this week between Dinson Steel and the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ). It could change how coal and steel move across the country.
What Has Been Agreed
Tsingshan’s Dinson Steel, whose $1 billion plant in central Zimbabwe began production in 2024, will haul 1.1 million tonnes of coal from Hwange, about 600 km away. The deal also covers moving 600,000 tonnes of steel products from the plant to markets in Zimbabwe and the region. That is roughly 1.7 million tonnes a year, much of which now travels by road.
The work is shared. Dinson subsidiary Grand Railway Solutions will supply locomotives, wagons and fuel, while NRZ provides infrastructure and train crews. The deal includes upgrading 80 km of track between Gweru and Mvuma and building a further 50 km to link Mvuma to the plant. The track upgrade is put at about $27 million.
A Railway in Need
NRZ badly needs the business. Its freight volumes collapsed from a peak of 12 million tonnes in the 1990s to 2 million tonnes in 2025 after years of under-investment. One customer promising close to 1.7 million tonnes could nearly double what the railway carries.
NRZ says the deal will move the bulk of Hwange’s coal traffic from road to rail. That means fewer heavy trucks on roads and potentially cheaper transport for industry.
Lessons for the Continent
Across Africa, many railways are ageing relics of the colonial era, built to carry minerals to the coast. Private industrial users are increasingly stepping in to fund and run them, from Mozambique to Tanzania. Zimbabwe’s deal follows that pattern.
There are questions worth asking, though. Who owns the new track in the long run, and will other shippers get fair access? Grand Railway Services will fund the track, hand it to NRZ and recover its costs through offsets. Those details will decide whether this deal revives a national asset or mainly serves one company. If it works, ordinary Zimbabweans could see more jobs, safer roads and a railway worth its name again.
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