Cummins recently hosted a highly successful seminar in both Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and at its Power Hub in Waterfall City, Johannesburg to introduce end users and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to its range of high-quality engines for the pumps segment. Here applications are agriculture and irrigation, dewatering and firefighting.

A similar seminar is planned for Saudi Arabia in the near future, and one is tentatively on the cards for Ghana, with Cummins also planning to exhibit its pump-segment engine range at NAMPO Cape from 4 to 6 September 2019 in Bredasdorp. Regional exhibitions in Zambia and Botswana will also be targeted to extend the awareness of Cummins’ pump-segment engine range to different countries, markets, and customers, Sales and Earthmoving Segment Leader Bo Fu explains.

While Cummins has committed to the idea of holding regular such seminars in different regions and territories, the target markets and product line-up will be tweaked to allow for as much diversification as possible, Industrial Pump Engines Segment Leader Mohamed Othman points out.

“We are currently looking at staging two seminars a year across the AME region from a pump-segment perspective. However, we have the flexibility to be able to target different locations, partnerships, distributors, and even industries, so as many end users as possible are exposed to our offering in this segment,” Othman comments.

Cummins’ engines are ideal for the pump segment, focusing mainly on mechanical engines from 50 hp to 2 700 hp. “Our scope of supply also extends to ancillary equipment such as radiators, variable or fixed speed drives, different pump certifications, and diverse engine ratings,” Fu elaborates.

“Our ultimate goal was to showcase to customers the full range of products we can support. In this instance, we focused on the packaged engine, which is a complete power solution with a mechanical or electronic engine sourced from plants in India and China to be able to offer customers competitive pricing and lead times.”

“At both events, our aim was to emphasise the total support we can offer our end users,” Othman stresses. “While our engines took centre stage, our value proposition extends to the possibility of our customers becoming reference points and business partners in their respective areas.” Cummins’ extensive footprint in the AME region, including Regional Distribution Centres in South Africa and Ghana, means it is able to offer full aftermarket support to customers anywhere in the region.

While many competitors are offering more advanced electronic engines for the pump segment, Othman stresses that Cummins has decided to provide mechanical engines due to their robustness, user-friendliness, ease of maintenance, and improved uptime. In addition, the mechanical control panel gives operators leverage in operating the engines much more efficiently. “The main advantage of mechanical engines is that they do not incur any downtime as a result. In addition, operators are trained either by us or the pump OEMs themselves.”

Such was the success of the seminars that the Dubai event, in particular, attracted enquiries from existing OEM customers, some of whom were interested in large-volume orders. The packaged engines on display ranged from 120 hp to 260 hp, 360 hp, and the 550 hp electronic engine, which was added to illustrate the full diversity of Cummins’ product range.

“Our strategy to break into the pump segment is not to introduce innovation in the sense of new product developments, but to reassure our customers that we can supply fit-for-market solutions that make a lot more sense in terms of the harsh operating conditions in Africa,” Othman concludes.