Capital Equipment News September 2016

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS SEPTEMBER 2016 28
Afrigrit runs a 24/7 operation
at its Witbank, Mpumalanga,
South Africa factory where
it primarily loads, hauls and
screens chrome slag for
chrome recovery, as well as treating waste
material to produce sand-blasting sand. In
1996, the company started its business pri-
marily producing sand-blasting sand out of
chrome slag. It eventually expanded with
the recovery of chrome from waste material
on behalf of Ferro Metals.
For a round-the-clock venture of this
nature, equipment downtime and uptime are
sink or swim factors. For Marius Pick, owner
of Afrigrit, an hour lost through downtime
is money through the drain, while a piece
of equipment that has high availability is
a boon on site. A cunning businessman in
every aspect of the word, Pick doesn’t leave
anything to chance as far as the health of
his fleet of equipment is concerned.
While reliability of equipment is a prime
factor when investing in Afrigrit’s equipment
needs, backup service and parts availability
are up the company’s checklist too. For Pick,
quality of equipment – whether premium
or value brand – is one thing, but backup
support, is quite another.
Based on this notion, the company has
further expanded its LiuGong wheel loader
fleet with the recent purchase of a new 17 t
CLG856H model from Burgers Equipment
& Spares, LiuGong’s dealer in South Africa
and Namibia. The new acquisition joins an
existing fleet of two other LiuGong CLG856
wheel loaders, as well as a LiuGong forklift
WHEN SERVICE PAYS
DIVIDENDS
For Afrigrit, a South African specialist in rehabilitation
of slag dumps and mineral separation, every piece
of equipment is as good as its service. Based on that
understanding, it has bolstered its LiuGong wheel loader
fleet, a decision largely influenced by sound backup support
and parts availability from local dealer Burgers Equipment
& Spares. By Munesu Shoko.