Zimbabwean authorities said this week they had launched a probe after a key segment of the manufacturing sector tipped into potential crisis, battered by a sudden and overwhelming surge in imports that now threatens the survival of more than a dozen firms.
The Competition and Tariff Commission (CTC) confirmed it had initiated safeguard investigations into fibreboard and wooden door imports following evidence of what it described as “serious injury” to domestic producers.
It is the latest blow to an industrial base already weakened by policy instability, high costs and shrinking market share.
At the centre of the crisis is a dramatic flood of imports over the past two years, according to the CTC.
Fibreboard imports rose sharply between 2022 and 2024, while door imports surged 815%, overwhelming local capacity and eroding profitability across the value chain.
The biggest companies operating in this space include Manica Boards & Doors (Pvt) Ltd, Wood Technology (Pvt) Ltd, Genesis Woodworking (Pvt) Ltd, and PG Industries Zimbabwe (PG Timbers), which once traded its stock on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchanging before delisting over a decade ago.
BLD Boards, Border Timbers Ltd, Allied Timbers (Pvt) Ltd, McDonald Timber Industries (Pvt) Ltd, Maswera Timbers, Timberland Windows & Doors (Pvt) Ltd, and specialist manufacturers such as Zim Pivot Doors, also operate in the segment.
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“Preliminary assessments have established prima facie evidence that a sudden, sharp and significant increase in fibreboard imports is causing serious injury to the domestic industry,” the CTC said in its latest report.
Data compiled by the commission showed fibreboard import volumes rose by 34% between 2022 and 2024. Over the same period, local production declined by 9,9%, while sales fell by 32%, signalling a rapid deterioration in industry performance.
Imports now account for more than 70% of Zimbabwe’s domestic fibreboard market, the CTC said. The share of local producers collapsed from 36% in 2020 to just 28% in 2024, a shift the CTC says demonstrates a clear causal link between import growth and industrial injury.
The picture is even bleaker in the wooden doors segment, according the report.
Import volumes ballooned from 278 393 kilogrammes in 2022 to 2,5 million kilogrammes in 2024, an 815% increase that has fundamentally reshaped the market.
“Imports now command 60% of the domestic market, up from 12% in 2022,” the commission said.
“This influx has resulted in a catastrophic 98,6% collapse in after-tax profits for domestic producers between 2023 and 2024.”
The import surge has been driven by a confluence of external and regional factors, including global supply chain distortions following the Covid-19 pandemic, the depreciation of the South African rand and a redirection of excess production from China and South Africa into smaller regional markets such as Zimbabwe.
While these dynamics are largely exogenous, their impact has been amplified by Zimbabwe’s own structural vulnerabilities, such as high production costs, policy uncertainty and limited access to affordable finance.
This has left local firms ill-equipped to compete with cheaper imported finished products.
In response, the CTC has launched two formal safeguard investigations covering fibreboard and wooden doors, inviting registered interested parties to submit representations.
“These investigations underscore the commission’s commitment to enforcing trade remedies that ensure a level playing field for domestic industries, in line with national developmental goals and international obligations,” it said.
The move comes against the backdrop of mounting warnings from industry that Zimbabwe’s fragile industrial recovery is at risk of reversal unless decisive corrective action is taken.
Last year, business leaders warned the country was approaching a “tipping point,” calling for a sweeping state-backed rescue package, dubbed a “Marshall Plan”, to arrest industrial decline and restore competitiveness.
A report by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce revealed that the retail and wholesale sector alone had suffered value losses of about US$3 billion.
The chamber argued that without urgent deregulation, tax reform, reliable energy supply, and incentives to draw firms out of informality, more companies would collapse, jobs would be lost and supply chains would weaken further.
Its findings echoed earlier warnings from the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, which cautioned that some of the country’s most recognisable brands were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Since then, a steady stream of closures, retrenchments, and corporate exits has demonstrated the depth of the crisis.
Industry bodies have consistently pointed to over-regulation, punitive taxation, power shortages, and prohibitively high borrowing costs — with lending rates of up to 40% in local currency and 18% in US dollars as key factors undermining competitiveness.
They have also warned that Zimbabwe’s widening trade gap, driven by raw material exports and finished goods imports, is affecting domestic production and accelerating de-industrialisation.
Analysts said the safeguard investigations into fibreboard and door imports would be a test of government’s willingness to move beyond diagnosis and deploy active industrial defence tools.
