Locomotive supplier RRL Grindrod Locomotives is expanding its manufacturing facilities in Pretoria, Gauteng, to keep up with growing demand and future projects, with the expansion set to be completed by the end of 2013.

Owing to the continent’s rich mineral reserves and the consequent demand for the development of rail infrastructure, RRL Grindrod Locomotives is delivering more locomotive projects in South Africa and further afield to the value of about $72-million.

These projects are set to improve productivity at mines and in other sectors and include RRL Grindrod Locomotives supplying five RL30SCC locomotives to Mozambique coal developer Minas Moatize on lease from rolling stock leasing company Thelo Rolling Stock Leasing, and is set to be completed by the end of November.

The various projects in Mozambique will result in RRL Grindrod Locomotives establishing a fully equipped workshop for the maintenance of locomotives and wagons to offer customer support. Technical staff for the project will be recruited in the country to facilitate easy maintenance and support localisation initiatives.

The locomotives will be used at the Minas Moatize opencast coal mine in Tete province, Mozambique, to haul coal on the Sena railway line from the mine to Beira.

In another project, seven RL30SCC’s will be used by Indian steel and energy company Jindal at its opencast coal mine in Chirodzi, in Tete. RRL Grindrod Locomotives has completed five of the seven locomotives and two more are currently being built and are expected to be completed by early November.

“This project will result in locomotives hauling coal on the Sena railway line from Tete to Beira,” says RRL Grindrod Locomotives CEO Robert Spoon.

Meanwhile, Brazilian multinational diversified metals and mining corporation Vale received delivery of two RL30SCC locomotives, in Mozambique, in September, with a further two locomotives having left for Beira on October 15. This project involves four locomotives being supplied to Vale on a short-term lease, which includes maintenance.

“RRL Grindrod supplied two RL30SCC’s to Vale at the end of 2012, thereby increasing the number of locomotives leased to Vale to six,” notes Spoon.

Further, the company reports that it has delivered six RL30SCC locomotives to coal and heavy minerals mining company Exxaro, in the Congo-Brazzaville, with a further six to be delivered towards the end of 2014. The locomotives will be used by Exxaro for its $320-million Mayoko iron-ore project.

Meanwhile, another project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has resulted in the country’s national rail company, Société National des chemins de fer du Congo (SNCC), receiving 11 locomotives from RRL Grindrod to date, with a further two locomotives on-route to the DRC. The initial two locomotives bought by SNCC were delivered towards the end of 2012.

The World Bank approved $290-million of facilities for the DRC government’s Multimodal Transport Project to rehabilitate the country’s transport infrastructure.

“A total of 11 locomotives will be leased from RRL Grindrod Locomotives over a three year period as part of this initiative,” says Spoon.

In another project, SNCC has contracted RRL Grindrod to refurbish six diesel-electric loco- motives, which were acquired from Queensland Rail, in Australia, by the end of 2013. The refurbishing will take place at RRL Grindrod Locomotives’ manufacturing facilities, in Pretoria, Gauteng.

Skills Transfer

To ensure regular inspection of the locomotives took place in line with the agreed refurbishment programme during the SNCC locomotive rebuild project, there was ongoing collaboration between RRL Grindrod Locomotives and SNCC’s technical teams.

At least 12 SNCC technical staff benefited from on-the-job training at RRL Grindrod Locomotives’ premises prior to delivery of the locomotives.

Following the delivery of the locomotives in the DRC, SNCC and RRL Grindrod Loco-motives’ technical staff assessed each locomotive before it was deployed to the various operating stations across the DRC.

This locomotive lease and maintenance arrangement will go a long way in supporting the Ministry of Transport and Communication’s initiative to revive the DRC’s rail network and contribute significantly to the country’s future economic growth.

Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, RRL Grindrod is supplying four RL30SCC locomotives to New Limpopo Bridge Projects Investments (NLPi). Grindrod Mauritius Rail will be leasing these locomotives to NLPi.

“The locomotives will operate on the 350 km railway line from Beitbridge, on the border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe, to Bulawayo, in Zimbabwe,” Spoon says.