Since engineered solutions provider ELB Engineering Services acquired local electrical and instrumentation (E&I) contractor B&W Instrumentation and Electrical in April last year, B&W has reported a significant turnaround and continues to register growth, despite the rest of the E&I industry facing challenges, B&W projects director Dean Nevay tells Engineering News.
“We have been able to rely on ELB’s extensive market reach and, in this mutual relationship, ELB can assure clients that it provides world-class E&I construction services that do not need to be outsourced to contractors, as ELB used to do before the acquisition,” explains Nevay.
He adds that, with ELB’s commercial support, B&W has been able to finalise old contracts, settle outstanding debt, consolidate its cash flow and return to operating profitably.
Industry Challenged
South Africa’s E&I sector is experiencing a decline in projects, mostly owing to the low commodity prices facing the mining industry, which is the sector’s main source of income.
Nevertheless, B&W continues to register growth. Nevay says low commodity prices have prompted several mining companies to implement cost-reduction measures, which has a domino effect in terms of the availability of funds dedicated to instrumentation and control and, ultimately, impacts on instrumentation service providers.
He explains, however, that B&W has several ongoing projects at mine sites across Africa and tells Engineering News that B&W has not reduced the number of its employees as a result of the downturn.
“We mostly attribute our success in the midst of the downturn to our commitment to building relationships with clients, which often results in repeat contracts,” he explains.
Nevay adds that, since B&W was established in 1973, it has prided itself on developing and maintaining relationships with clients. He cites, by way of example, the company’s fourteen-year-long relationship with multinational project management firm DRA.
“We have been working and will continue to work with DRA on countless projects, including more than 14 concentrators across Africa. These projects included the 2013 design and construction of a 600 000 t/m PP Rust platinum concentrator for mining major Anglo American Platinum, which is one of the biggest concentrators ever built in Southern Africa.”
B&W was also contracted by DRA to install an E&I system on South Africa’s first wet high-intensity magnetic separation unit for manganese ore and alloys company Assmang’s Khumani iron-ore mine, in the Northern Cape, which was completed in June 2013.
“Our clients trust our quality, our performance on site and the expertise we have accumulated over the years through working on several similar projects,” Nevay details.
B&W’s latest work includes an E&I installation for the materials handling plant at Eskom’s Kusile plant.
About B&W
B&W was founded in 1973 in Cape Town and, in 1982, the company opened an office in Alberton, on Johannesburg’s East Rand.
The company says it realised that Gauteng offered the most potential for business opportunities, which is why the Alberton office became its head office.
“In the early 1990s, B&W made the strategic move to develop an instrumentation construction capability to complement its electrical offering, which soon resulted in the company becoming one of the most significant players in the mining, and oil and gas industries,” says B&W.
The company now focuses on work outside South Africa, though the country remains a strong source of projects. B&W has worked across Africa, including in countries such as Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana and Sudan.