Capital Equipment News May 2022

The Kwatani assembly shop floor filled to capacity with ongoing orders.

Kwatani has strongly leveraged its in-house capabilities to steer through the turbulent times, says CEO Kim Schoepflin. “The supply chain shortages are wreaking havoc everywhere, but leveraging our local capacity, from design to fabrication, we have been able to manoeuvre through these challenges,” says Schoepflin. “Our high local content, which is close to 90%, has been another key factor in getting the better of supply chain challenges. We have over the years heeded government’s call for localisation, and therefore most of our suppliers are local. The only imported items in our manufacturing processes are unbalanced motors and bearings, which limits our exposure to the global supply chain disruptions.” Strong growth When COVID-19 hit in early 2020, there was general trepidation throughout the market that commodity prices could fall closer to trough levels in the short term and make significant cuts to mining companies’ earnings forecasts. Production losses were also a cause for concern, especially at the height of the hard lockdown, which called for a complete shutdown of most mines. Despite the supply chain challenges, Kwatani has seen strong business growth in the past year. This, Schoepflin says, is largely due to high commodity prices. With record rand prices for gold, the platinum group metals basket, iron ore and more recently, coal, 2020 – 2021 has truly been rewarding for mining industry stakeholders. Having previously deferred both their

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Global supply chain challenges are hurting original equipment manufacturers in all dimensions of their businesses

Kwatani is leveraging its in-house capabilities to steer through the turbulent times

Its close to 90% local content has been another key factor in getting the better of supply chain challenges

The recent acquisition by Sandvik provides Kwatani greater access to foreign markets through Sandvik’s extensive distribution footprint

breaking point and creating one big global logistical nightmare. Issues such as the ongoing shortages of steel, shipping delays, shipping container shortages and ultimately higher shipping costs are hurting original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on all dimensions

of their businesses. Consequently, end users have had to bear the brunt of record lead times for their mission-critical capital equipment. While the global supply chain challenges have tested the organisational resilience of the majority of OEMs across the globe,

equipment replacement cycles and maintenance programmes when the

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