Driving industry forward
Through its extensive range of industrial gears, gearmotors and frequency inverters, drive systems for decentralised installations and servo technology, SEW Eurodrive has earned itself a reputation for being a global specialist in the field of drive engineering and automation. SEW Eurodrive has made inroads into approximately 80% of all industries, including materials handling, petrochemical, iron, steel, sugar, airports, food and beverage and pulp and paper.
SEW Eurodrive Managing Director Ute Bormann points out that the company is now also targeting Southern Africa’s more settled industries, such as gold, coal, ports and harbours.
“We afford clients a holistic approach to problem solving by offering a turnkey solution to any installation requirement. ‘Think global, act local’ has been our guiding business philosophy for many years. While the majority of SEW’s drive components are manufactured centrally to a single standard in our global production facilities in Germany, Brazil, France, the US, China and Finland; final assembly and custom modifications are performed in regional assembly plants located close to our customers around the world,” explains Bormann.
She adds that the company’s assembly plants in Johannesburg, Nelspruit, Durban and Cape Town and two main service plants in Richards Bay and Port Elizabeth, have experienced significant demand in recent times, which has necessitated the expansion of the Nelspruit, Durban and Cape Town branches’ handling capacity.
The Nelspruit branch, which is the company’s industrial gears hub, has increased its handling capacity from 15 tons to 26 tons. The Durban branch is also currently undergoing an expansion phase which will see the branch move into a largerfacility in Prospecton Road, while the Johannesburg branch expansion was completed in 2011 and now includes a dedicated service and repairs facility, as well as the newly-established Drive Academy with three dedicated and fully-equipped training rooms.
Cape Town has had additional cranes installed in order to handle higher tonnages and was recently upgraded to allow for the local assemly of SEW Eurodrive’s mechatronic drive, the Movigear. Future plans for local assemblyof servo motors is also on the cards for this branch.
Bormann says that not only is the company investing in property and facilities, but there has also been a significant increase in human resources to allow for the expansions taking place. SEW Eurodrive has been running an intensive recruitment drive and has hired some of the industry’s best sales engineers in order to accommodate the new services and market growth of the company.
Looking ahead to 2013, Bormann says that the company’s main focus, in addition to its traditional operating areas, will be entering the coal, gold and ports and harbour sectors. With the weight of nearly 350 international SEW Eurodrive researchers and developers and more than 14 000 employees worldwide, Bormann is confident that SEW Eurodrive will meet its targets and will have another successful year.
Ends.
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