Japanese corporate conglomerate Mitsui’s black economic-empowerment (BEE) subsidiary, Venus Railway Solutions, has completed the manufacture of the 32 Class 15E2 locomotives for State-owned transport group Transnet’s 861 km iron-ore line.

The line runs from Sishen, in Northern Cape, to the Saldanha port, in the Western Cape, and Venus expects the remaining six locomotives to be delivered to Transnet this year.

The supply contract was concluded in December 2010 and the manufacturing of the locomotives has been progressed in line with the contractual delivery schedule.

Mitsui’s other BEE subsidiary, Mitsui & Company African Railway Solutions (MARS), last year completed the supply of 110 Class 19E 3 kV direct current (dc) and 25 kV alternating current (ac) dual-voltage locomotives for Transnet’s 580 km coal line, which runs from Blackhill, in Mpumalanga, to Richards Bay, in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Class 19E locomotives can run through ac sections and dc sections and, from July this year, Transnet introduced Project Shongololo – a 200-wagon rail service using Class 19E locomotives to transport coal from the coal mines of Mpumalanga to Richards Bay, bypassing the Ermelo yard to reduce the cycle time to increase transport capacity.

In the 1980s, Mitsui supplied Class 10E/10E2 locomotives for use on the coal line, but these are curently used for general freight. The Class 10E/10E2 locomotives were manufactured in South Africa by local rolling stock manu- facturer Union Carriage & Wagon (UCW), in Nigel, and used electrical components from Japanese engineering and electronics conglomerate Toshiba.

However, locomotive manufacturing had not been active for almost 20 years and when Mitsui’s BEE subsidiaries were awarded the contracts to supply the Class 19E and 15E locomotives in 2006, various issues arose, resulting in the contractual delivery schedule with UCW not progressing as planned.

Mitsui inspected the manufacturing facility and, together with Toshiba, initiated a support programme that resulted in Mitsui dispatching Japanese engineers to assist in the manufacturing of the locomotives.

The engineers transferred skills and know-how to local engineers and, as a result of various intervention and improvement programmes, such as training in welding, piping, inspection and production control, the number of skilled workers at UCW increased significantly and the manufacturing cycle of the locomotives improved greatly, as one locomotive was manufactured every 2.5 days.

Since the introduction of Class 15E locomotives to Transnet’s iron-ore line, these locomotives have made it possible to increase the transport capacity from 41- million tons a year to 60-million tons a year.

Class 15E locomotives have a 454 kN continuous tractive effort, with the power supply of 50 kV ac. Five units of Class 15E locomotives can transport 342 wagons carrying 342 000 t of iron-ore simultan- eously, compared with three Class 9E and seven Class 34 locomotives required to transport the same volumes.

Project Shongololo, launched by Transnet in July this year, is expected to increase the coal line’s transport capacity from 70- million tons a year to 81-million tons a year using Class 19E locomotives. The locomotives are dual-voltage compatible, with 3 kV dc and 25 kV ac and 300 kN continuous tractive effort.

The Class 15E and 19E locomotives are equipped with a regenerative brake system, which uses the traction motors as an electric generator by converting the kinetic energy into electricity while the locomotive is braking. Transnet’s 19E and 15E locomotives regenerated enough electricity to power an area the size of Alexandra for a year, during the 2012/13 financial year.

The availability of Class 15E and 19E locomotives constantly remains high, at 98% to 100%.

Mitsui currently provides after-services for Transnet, such as on-site training for Transnet Engineering (TE) engineers at the respective Class 19E and 15E depots.

Mitsui has also arranged for TE’s engineers to undergo maintenance training for the Class 15E locomotives at its facilities in Japan. Mitsui is also planning to do the same for the Class 19E locomotive engineers.

A skills development programme, initiated by the Japanese government, is also envisioned.

“We are honoured to have this opportunity to contribute to the development of the economy of South Africa through the improvement of the logistics infrastructure with our high-performing Class 19E and 15E locomotives operating on the two important corridors of Transnet, the coal line and the orex line.

“We aspire to further contribute to the deal with regard to some of the social tasks which South Africa is facing by supplying the locomotives. We are prepared to assist the industrialisation of the railway sector in South Africa by introducing our business incubation model and we are excited to be part of the development, ” says MARS GM Shigeo Yanai.