South African industrial group Barloworld on Thursday announced that its Equipment division had entered into a 50:50 joint venture (JV) transaction with its Caterpillar dealer counterpart, Tractafric Equipment, in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The JV, known as Congo Equipment, will service the earthmoving equipment needs of DRC’s copper and cobalt rich Katanga province.

Congo Equipment, which was formed on an agreement between Caterpillar and the two dealers to provide equipment solutions to customers in the Katanga province, will rely on Barloworld Equipment’s expertise in the southern African mining industry and its strong presence in the adjacent Zambian Copperbelt, from which to access Katanga’s mining territories, the company said.

Barloworld Equipment is the Caterpillar dealer for South Africa and neighbouring countries, Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.

Tractafric Equipment holds the Caterpillar dealership for the DRC and several other French speaking countries in Africa, including Gabon, Morocco, Chad, Cameroon, Congo (Brazzaville), Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda and Burundi.

Barloworld Equipment and Tractafric Equipment were busy setting up an administrative centre for the joint venture in Lubumbashi, with a full facility including parts store and workshops to be located in the main copper mining area of Kolwezi.

"This partnership provides us with further growth potential in the southern African region,” Barloworld CE Clive Thomson.

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