Transnet delivers wagons to Mozambique

Tuesday, 20 Mar 2012

Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba marked the shipping of the last 98 of the 200 wagons and spare parts designed, engineered and manufactured in Transnet Rail Engineering's facility in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape.

The wagons, which were built for global mining giant Rio Tinto, will be carrying coal from the company's coking coal mine at Moatize in Mozambique's Tete province to the port of Beira.

The wagons and two containers with spare parts were railed from Transnet Rail Engineering's Wagon Business at Uitenhage about 23km from Port Elizabeth to the Port Elizabeth harbour where they were loaded on the MV Thorco Sunrise SW cargo vessel, which departs for Mozambique on Friday.

Gigaba said that "This is a particularly proud moment for us not only because of the significance of this achievement but because of the stringent standards we imposed on ourselves to satisfy our customer. The design, development, prototyping, industrialization and starting production of this new wagon were accomplished in less than five months an impressive lead time by any international standards."

In line with Transnet's commitment to the competitive supplier development program, 85% of the raw materials and components used to manufacture the wagons were sourced locally or built in-house. Only the draw gear and a few specialized components were imported.

Chief executive Brian Molefe said that "A total service solution is key to our customer satisfaction strategy. For this reason and to maximize the life-cycle of the wagons and to ensure a low total cost of ownership, we will be sending our experts to train and supervise local staff in the maintenance of these wagons in Mozambique.”

The wagon business at Uitenhage specializes in manufacturing, conversion, heavy repair and upgrading of railway wagons for domestic fleets. It supplies wagons to the east coast intermodal operators of Tanzania and the west coast mines of Ghana.

Source - www.businesslive.co.za