Amid multimillion-rand infrastructure projects emerging in South Africa, international construction machinery company Imer Group’s timing to partner with concrete machinery distributor Pan Mixers South Africa (PMSA) could not have been more perfect, says Imer Group area sales manager Paolo Molino.

Molino highlights that the next step will be to visit big construction companies in South Africa to raise awareness of the partnership and its offering to the market.

Imer Group partnered with PMSA in May to distribute the group’s range of readymix concrete batching plants in South Africa.

PMSA officially announced the partnership in September at the bauma Africa International Trade Fair, in Johannesburg.

“The bauma Africa event is globally recog- nised as a premier construction show and by hosting the event in South Africa, we had the perfect opportunity to announce our partnership with Imer Group. The event provided local audiences with an opportunity to view new technical offerings and products from companies that are traditionally out of reach. PMSA believes that this is the start of a good partnership, which will impact positively on the construction industry,” PMSA sales manager Quintin Booysen says.

“Our discussions with PMSA, on the pos-sibility of starting a partnership with them, began during bauma Munich in April. By that time, we had observed the South African market and realised that it presented a great opportunity to supply our batching plants range for the readymix concrete sector,” says Molino.

He notes that the group has partnered with a few countries in North Africa and that South Africa is the first coun-try it has partnered with in Southern Africa.

“The South African market is different, compared with other countries in Africa. The underdeveloped state of infrastructure in Africa, generally, has proved to be a challenge in terms of distributing our batching plants range, whereas South Africa’s infrastructure is more developed,” Molino explains.

“The Imer Group is a leader in the manufacturing of concrete batching plants worldwide; therefore, we offer experience and high-quality products to the South African market. However, as this is a new market for us, with different working conditions, the partnership with PMSA will enable us to learn and develop equipment that will be tailor- made for the South African market. This will help us increase our footprint and enhance research and development as a group,” Molino points out.

He notes that PMSA will focus on the distribution of all products related to Imer Group concrete business unit.

The group manufactures wet concrete batching plants, which are preassembled, prewired and engineered to meet the increasing requirements of reducing time and space at the construction yard. The new wet range of small batching plants, called Multis, are designed to be transported on standard trucks. The mixing phase of the wet concrete batching plant takes place in a planetary pan or a twin-shaft mixer, depending on the model of the plant. The biggest output capacity in the batching plants range can reach up to 300 m³/h.

The dry mobile batching plant consists of a self-contained unit that includes the frame, aggregate hopper, conveyor belt, cement batcher and control panel. The system requires no foundation works for installation and it can be combined with a storage group or a radius lift arm. The production capacity of the plant can reach up to 54 m³/h, accord-ing to Imer Group.