To compensate for a decrease in the South African market activity because of volatile commodity pricing and investor confidence uncertainties, gearbox designer and manufacturer Hansen Transmissions South Africa (SA) is focusing more on Africa as a new market by signing four partnership agreements with African businesses in the past six months.

An additional two partnership agreements are also in the pipeline, Hansen Transmissions SA sales and marketing manager David Main tells Engineering News.

“While the company has a continuous stream of business in Africa, largely derived from project houses, the additional focus of the company is opting for direct business through partnership structures in several strategic regions on the continent,” he explains.

The company has earmarked potential partners over the past 12 months, Hansen Transmissions SA MD Fritz Fourie adds.

The company’s strategy comprises three phases, with the first phase – the investigative phase – already completed. The second phase, which the company is currently executing, entails establishing partnership agreements for West Africa and the Southern Africa Development Community regions. The last phase will entail establishing partnership agreements for East Africa, which will centre on Tanzania and Kenya.

“For the Economic Community of West African States, or Ecowas region, Hansen Transmissions SA identified Ghana as the base, while Kenya will be the base for East Africa,” Fourie says.

He notes that Hansen Transmissions SA is commissioning two large projects in the Tete coalfields and at the Port of Nacala, in Mozambique. Commissioning started in January this year, although Hansen Transmissions SA completed the delivery of the 60 Hansen P4 conveyor drives to each project in late 2014.

Fourie believes that commissioning will be completed within the next six months.

Hansen has been involved in the supply of four Hansen P4 conveyor drives to the Ghana-based Asanko gold mine.

The Hansen P4 conveyor-drive range has a torque capacity ranging from 6 kNm to 1 100 kNm, and a power rating of up to 7 500 kW. It is available in two-, three- or four-gear stages, with reduction ratios of between 6.3 and 630.

The conveyor drives were delivered to the Asanko mine during March, Fourie notes.

Sales Strategy
Fourie says the company’s focus on Africa forms part of its push-pull sales strategy.
He describes the push strategy as the consequence of sales to South African project houses, original-equipment manufacturers and consultants, while the pull strategy will be executed through sales from the partners in the different regions.
“The pull strategy aims to achieve a competitive industry advantage through the partnerships with local companies in the different regions that can provide local support, and through Hansen Transmissions SA’s field service technicians who assist end-users in problem solving and with maintenance and repairs on site –on not only a sales level but also a technical level,” Fourie emphasises.
He highlights that the company’s technicians have visited the SADC, Ecowas and East Africa countries about eight times in the past year, which shows a definite increase in demand for technical services, compared with demand during the previous two years.
Another competitive advantage for Hansen Transmissions SA, Main believes, includes the introduction of the more affordable Paramax brand of gearboxes, manufactured by Hansen’s parent company Japan-based Sumitomo group of companies in China.
The Paramax brand was added to Hansen Transmissions SA’s product portfolio in January 2014. The product range consists of the standardised 9000 series.
Fourie further highlights that the company’s percentage of sales from Africa, compared with local sales, has substantially increased in the past financial year.
“While Hansen Transmission SA supplies a combination of products to the mining, materials handling and wastewater-treatment industries in general, its speciality – gearboxes and drives – has been distributed across the mining, wastewater-treatment and energy sectors,” he concludes.