Name and Location
PRASA New Rolling Stock Procurement Programme – Gibela rolling stock project, South Africa.

Client
Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA).

Project Description
The programme involves the acquisition of about 7 200 new rail vehicles by 2034.

The supply programme will be rolled out in two phases, with the first involving the supply of 600 trains comprising 3 600 coaches over a ten-year period.

The rail agency signed a R51-billion contract with Gibela Rail Transport Consortium, comprising Alstom (61%), Ubumbano Rail (30%) and New Africa Rail (9%), in October 2013 to supply the first 600 trains from 2015 to 2025.

Ubumbano Rail comprises several companies that are keen to enter the rail sector as suppliers. The three commercial entities in Ubumbano Rail are Khipunyawo Rail, the Elgin-Identity Rail Corporation and Community Rail.

The consortium will provide PRASA with Alstom’s X’Trapolis Mega train, with each train comprising six cars capable of transporting more than 1 300 passengers. The trains will travel at speeds of up to 120 km/h and could be upgraded to travel 160 km/h.

The first 20 trains and 120 coaches are being manufactured at Alstom’s Lapa facility in São Paulo, Brazil, while a R1-billion, 600 000 m² local manufacturing facility will be built in Dunnottar, Ekurhuleni, to manufacture the balance of the trains.

Gibela will also provide maintenance, spare parts and technical support for PRASA over a 19-year period in terms of a contract worth about R10-billion. Alstom will establish five maintenance depots – two in Gauteng, two in KwaZulu-Natal and one in the Eastern Cape – that will provide fault-finding support, reliability engineers, controls and monitoring, and material requirement planning. Gibela will also establish two repair centres in Salt River and Durban.

In support of the programme, PRASA has embarked on a major modernisation programme, which will include depot and station modernisation; a rolling stock refurbishment programme; and perway, bridges, infrastructure and signalling upgrades.

Value
The project forms part of PRASA’s R136-billion rolling stock fleet renewal programme.

Duration
R51-billion.

Latest Developments
The number of local suppliers in the R51-billion contract to produce 600 new passenger trains for PRASA has reached 32.

Six trains have been completed and shipped to South Africa to date.

Gibela CEO Marc Granger has said that the company has no contractual obligations to add local content to the Brazilian-built trains. However, Gibela has taken a strategic decision to get a headstart to ensure that local suppliers are well prepared – in terms of technical capability, capacity and investment –  for what will be an intensive manufacturing programme once local production starts in 2017.

Local manufacturing at the Dunnottar plant, under construction in Ekurhuleni, will peak at the end of 2019 at a rate of two train cars a day, or 62 cars a year, Granger has said.

“To do this, 10 000 parts will have to come on site every day from 250 suppliers. This is a very, very significant challenge. Only the best factories in the world can deliver this.”

For each train that is currently built in Brazil, 22% of procurement spend is on components sourced from South African suppliers.

At peak production, between 65% and 70% of the components will be locally produced, by value.

Train 21 will have “significantly” higher local content than the Brazilian produced trains, Granger has noted.

This means Gibela is looking for more local suppliers.

The focus is not only on the large tier-one suppliers but also tier two, three, four and five suppliers.

Granger wants every “chemical and paint” used in Gibela components to eventually be sourced from South Africa, rather than components being imported for use or assembly in the country.

At full production, Gibela expects that about 200 local suppliers will deliver parts to Dunnottar.

This leaves the consortium with two years to find a significant number of local suppliers.

Granger adds that the project to establish a supplier park next to the Dunnottar plant “is progressing well”.

Gibela shareholders have agreed that Ubumbano Rail will be the main developer of the park.

Gibela has, over the past two years, provided technical support for several suppliers as part of a drive to ensure that they meet the group’s quality requirements.

The goal is to help these suppliers “make it on their own”, Granger has said.

Local suppliers to Gibela include:

• Siyahamba Engineering – cabin doors and interiors, including partition walls;
• Booyco Engineering – saloon heaters and driver footrests;
• ILVA General Engineering – air tank reservoirs;
• KAMA Industries – horns;
• Profibre – passenger seats and longitudinal benches;
• KARE – battery boxes;
• First National Battery – batteries;
• Denel – baseboard ducts;
• Global Composite – luggage racks, equipped ceiling, cab and saloon air ducts;
• Delberg Engineering – handbars and backrests;
• Radel – passenger and cab lighting, door-light indicator and voltage indicators;
• Gibbs – insulation;
• Crest Information Systems – door external fairing, extract air duct in cubicle;
• Laser Junction – brackets, cab foot step;
• Laser Junction/General Profiling Matla Steel – coupler push backs;
• Laser Junction/SPE – tool boxes;
• Jandinox – equipment support;
• Buzas – obstacle deflectors;
• Columbus/Macsteel – stainless steel;
• Arcelor Mittal SA/Macsteel – carbon steel;
• LED Lighting – external front/cab lighting;
• Aberdare – cables and wires; and
• Forminox – piping.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
The local suppliers to Gibela include: Siyahamba Engineering (cabin doors, and interiors, including partition walls); Booyco Engineering (saloon heaters, driver footrests); ILVA  General Engineering (air tank reservoirs); KAMA Industries (horns); Profibre (passenger seats and longitudinal benches); KARE Industrial (battery boxes); First National Battery (batteries); Denel (baseboard ducts); Global Composite (luggage racks, equipped ceiling, cab and saloon air ducts); Delberg Engineering & Quality Systems (handbars and backrests); Radél (passenger and cab lighting, door-light and voltage indicators); Gibbs (insulation); Crest Information Systems (door external fairing, extract air duct in cubicles); Laser Junction (brackets, cab foot steps); Laser Junction/General Profiling Matla Steel (coupler push backs); Laser Junction/SPE (tool boxes); Jandinox (equipment support); Buzas (obstacle deflectors); Columbus Stainless/Macsteel (stainless steel); Arcelor Mittal South Africa/Macsteel (carbon steel); LED Lighting SA (external front/cab lighting); Aberdare Cables (cables and wires); and Forminox (piping).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
PRASA, Moffet Mofokeng, tel +27 12 748 7000 or email momofokeng@prasa.com.
Gibela communications director Pamella Radebe email pamella.radebe@gibela-rail.com.
Siyahamba Engineering, tel +27 11 824 2183.
Booyco Engineering, tel +27 11 974 8640 or email info@booyco.co.za
ILVA  General Engineering, tel +27 11 609 3000/1, fax +27 11 609 6618 or email info@liva.co.za.
KAMA Industries, tel +27 11 472 3980, fax +27 11 672 9800 or email sales@kama.co.za.
Profibre, tel +27 31 713 8900, fax +27 31 702 0500 or email admin@profibre.co.za
KARE Industrial, tel + 27 11 334 0922 or email info@kare.co.za
First National Battery, tel +27 11 741 3600, fax +27 11 421 1625 or email marketing@battery.co.za.
Denel, tel +27 12 671 2700, fax +27 12 671 2751 or email marketing@denel.co.za.
Global Composite, tel +27 33 346 0203, fax +27 33 346 0310 or email info@globalcomposites.co.za.
Delberg Engineering & Quality Systems, tel +27 12 666 8169/8451/8408 or email sales@delbergsa.co.za.
Radél, tel +27 11 888 6696, fax +27 11 888 2390 or email info@radel.co.za.
Gibbs, tel +27 11 519 4600 or fax +27 (0)11 807 5670.
Crest Information Systems, tel +27 11 887 7154.
Laser Junction, tel +27 86 0 52737.
General Profiling Matla Steel, tel +27 11 062 3200, fax +27 11 062 3271/2 or email sales@generalprofiling.co.za.
SPE, tel +27 11 674 5046 or email enquiries@spe-sa.com.
Columbus, tel +27 13 247 9111 or fax +27 13 246 1681.
Macsteel, tel +27 11 871 0000 or fax +27 11 823 3860.
Arcelor Mittal SA, tel +27 16 988 0509 or email thami.mphokela@mssc.co.za.
LED Lighting SA, tel +27 21 510 0028
Aberdare Cables, tel +27 11 396 8000 or fax +27 11 396 8010.