Fluid conveyance solutions company Rare Holdings reports that it has managed to pull through the current economic downturn as a result of the diversity of its products and its geographical outreach.

“Because we supply different types of pipes, as well as valves, joints and fittings, our risk is spread across a much broader field. Not only do we provide services from the initial design input with the consulting engineers, but we also provide supply chain management that includes maintenance, repair and operation services,” says Rare marketing director Allistair Balutto.

The company also tenders for projects as far afield as Mali and Brunei.

Although Rare has pulled through these tough economic times, he says that the strain felt by the company was attributed to clients in the mining and water industries putting their contracts on hold early last year, as well as other large customers, such as petrochemicals giant Sasol.

The company’s survival was also largely attributed to the inclusion of the possibility of a financial downturn in its five-year business plan. It had predicted that it would need to diversify its offerings sooner rather than later to pull through the financial difficulties affecting the world’s economies.

Meanwhile, Balutto says that there has recently been a significant increase in enquiries and tenders across the industry and from African countries.

The company aims to strategically focus on the African continent in future, as well as achieve its medium- and long-term goals by moving up the value chain from a trading entity with some manufacturing, to a fluid conveyance infrastructure asset management group.

Rare’s introduction of trenchless tech- nologies into its solutions range for the rehabilitation and maintenance of existing, buried pipelines has proved largely bene- ficial for the company. This technology eliminates the need to disrupt the surface of the land to reach the pipes below. Rare reports that it is currently rehabilitating pipelines throughout Africa that were about to be decommissioned or rebuilt at a very high cost.

This technology allows Rare to repair buried pipelines for up to a kilometre at a time and from only one entry point. It can also be used on dam walls, which eliminates the need to break down the wall to reach the pipe. Rare reports that trenchless technology can save up to 60 % of the cost of replacing the entire pipeline.

Rare currently runs projects using trenchless technology and other rehabilitation technologies in countries such as Ghana, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The company has had its contract to maintain the water dams for all the northern provinces of South Africa renewed for the third time by the Depart- ment of Water and Environmental Affairs. The renewed contract runs over a three-year period.

“We begin our involvement right at the source – before the water even goes into the pipelines. We have been fortunate to have this contract renewed for the rehabilita- tion, maintenance and operation of these dams, giving us the opportunity to provide holistic solutions to the client’s needs,” Balutto says.

The company was also awarded the contract for the supply of 74 km of pipeline of various diameter for a project in Kwa- Zulu-Natal’s Zululand district. The company reports that this project has benefited the local community and industries by employing local labour during the contract. The project started in January 2009 and the company aims to complete it by February 2010.

Rare is focused on all the elements of solutions provision in the industry, from the source right through to the rehabilitation and maintenance of the piping systems, as well as pump monitoring and dam maintenance.