JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Southern African equipment division of JSE-listed diversified industrial group Barloworld would, in 2009, sell 90% of the number of machines it had sold into the mining industry in 2008, despite the slowdown in that sector.

Barloworld CEO Clive Thomson told shareholders that this was remarkable, given that 2008 had been a record year in the group’s 80 years of existence.

He noted that the company had seen a slowdown in activity in the copper, diamonds and the platinum sectors in the first half of the 2009 financial year.

In 2008, 16% of its machines had been sold to the copper industry, a number that would drop to 13% in 2009. The platinum sector had also seen a huge decline, from 26% of machines sold in 2008 to only 5% in 2009.

The group expected to also only sell 2% of machines to the diamond industry, compared with the 7% of machines sold in 2008.

However, the iron-ore and coal sectors had continued to experience plenty of activity, a trend that was expected to continue.

Barloworld’s sales of machinery to the coal industry would increase to 41% in 2009, compared with 34% in 2008, while the machines sold to the iron-ore industry would rise to 21%, compared with the 12% sold in 2008.

Thomson noted that it was continuing to see high activity in the iron-ore industry, especially in the Northern Cape, while the expansion of coal mines remained strong.

It had five-year contracts signed for the supply of machines, parts and services for 12 projects in Middelburg, while additional opportunities would come from expansions in the Waterberg coalfields.

Further, the group had also been awarded a nearly R2-billion order, its biggest order in history, from iron-ore giant Vale for the supply of equipment, parts and services to the Brazilian miner’s $1,3-billion coal project, in northern Mozambique.

The contract would start in 2010, said Thomson.

Meanwhile, the group’s equipment division in Russia had been supported by activity in the gold sector in the first part of the year.

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