NAIROBI, July 2- Kobil Zambia, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Kenol Group, Monday announced that it had signed on two new ventures in Zambia in the hope of expanding its regional presence and improving on supply chain logistics, market share and profitability.
Kobil Zambia, headquartered in Kenya has acquired a 15 percent shareholding of Lublend Limited, a lubricants blending plant in Ndola, the Copper belt region of Zambia.
With this new acquisition, the company plans to beef up its lubricants blending and supplies within the mineral-rich Zambian region.
The plant will boost Kobil lubricants supplies within the export markets of the Democratic Republic of Congo (in the Lubumbashi area), Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique, and will provide Kenol Group with the capacity to service the region whose potential to is yet to be fully tapped.
Prior to the acquisition, the Kenol Group was blending all its lubricants supplies for Kenya and the subsidiaries (except Kobil Tanzania) in Mombasa, and then distributing them.
The new acquisition is expected to reduce operational costs and the lead time in making lubricants available to customer operations in the region.
The acquisition will also reduce operational pressure on the Changamwe-based lubricants blending factory, which will now concentrate on the growing market in Kenya and the landlocked neighbouring countries.
Kobil Zambia Limited has also signed a long-term fuel supply agreement with one of the largest and newest multinational mining companies in Zambia, Albidon Mining Ltd.
Albidon is currently in the final stages of its site construction, and will be mining nickel in the southern region of Zambia for the export market.
The annual supply to Albidon will be between 2,800-3,000 m3 of Low Sulphur Diesel.
These new ventures are part of an aggressive plan by Kobil Zambia to penetrate the mining sector in Zambia, which has long been dominated by the traditional multinational oil companies from the US and Europe.
The mining sector in Zambia and the Southern African Region as a whole has been registering impressive growth due to favourable metal prices in the international market.
