Southern Africa’s leading gases supplier looking to expand filling facilities to meet demand of new contract

Afrox is in full swing upgrading its service facilities at hospitals across South Africa as part of the company’s R150 million investment strategy to deliver on the state healthcare tender award to supply hospitals and clinics across the nine provinces.

To meet demand for what is expected to be thousands of extra tons of medical gases under the new state healthcare contract, Afrox is also looking at opening new medical filling facilities in Klerksdorp, Kimberly, possibly Newcastle, and upgrading Bloemfontien site and the GOC site in Germiston.

“We are looking at a capex investment on hospitals sites in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), the Free State and North West provinces of more than R150 million,” confirmed head of Afrox healthcare, Joseph Ramashala. “The first tanks and back-up cylinders are being installed as part of a co-ordinated roll out programme, supported by Afrox’s Customer Engineering Services and the distribution teams in various regions. Our strategic plan is to install some 62 new bulk tanks and roll out a fleet of 40,000 cylinders to service state healthcare needs, and to achieve this by February 2019.”

Two new compact rigid bulk tankers will also be purchased to enable safe deliveries to those hospitals with limited access, especially in KZN. Linde Engineering and Afrox Bulk Engineering Services are responsible for constructing new tanks and refurbishing existing equipment.

“As part of our rollout plan, the Sales teams have prepared comprehensive welcome packs for the hospitals,” said Ramashala. “We will make this changeover, from the previous supplier, to Afrox services, safely and as seamless as possible for hospital management and we will be promoting the use our e-commerce channels to place orders and manage their accounts online.”

Plans are also in place to offer state hospitals the new integrated medical gas control valve and deliveries are expected to start arriving in South Africa in early 2019. Afrox now officially supplies more than 400 hospitals and 1600 clinics across South Africa.

“We have the state contract for foreseeable future,” said Ramashala, “and this is our chance to show Government and the private healthcare sectors that Afrox is the best choice to partner with when it comes to supplying high grade medical products.”

Pictured: As part of its R150 million state healthcare investment, Afrox Customer Engineering Services install a new liquid oxygen bulk tank to serve Brits District Hospital in North West province.