Private rail service provider Grindrod Rail is well placed to take advantage of the demand for commodities from Africa, providing key services for strategic customers wishing to get their product to port and supporting national rail operators in meeting their rail commitments.
The historic under investment in rail, together with the proliferation of large mining projects, supported by general economic growth and the need for an integrated rail logistics service provider, has provided a favourable environment for Grindrod Rail’s growth in the African rail sector.

The company, which forms part of the JSE-listed Grindrod group, provides a full suite of rail services across Africa – from the manufacture and refurbishment of locomotives and wagons, to facilitating a seamless “pit-to-port” rail logistics solutions for freight users in Africa.
Grindrod offers individual and turnkey rail solutions in five focus areas, including rail operations, locomotive engineering, sales and management, signalling and train control systems, railway track construction and maintenance, as well as rolling stock leasing and financing.

1. Grindrod Rail Operations
For short-haul/branch line operations, Grindrod Rail Operations provides services including crewing, shunting, inbound and outbound rail management, tippler operations, building of train sets and industrial cleaning of rolling stock. Through the Grindrod Corridor Management division, the business also offers the added-value service of being an interface between stakeholders on the rail supply chain, facilitating efficiencies from pit to port.
Currently, Grindrod Rail’s main focus is on the development of the North West Rail project, in Zambia, where the lack of an efficient rail system is negatively impacting on growth prospects for the region. Grindrod Rail is also taking steps to continue to unlock commodity flows on the critical North–South corridor route.

• North West Rail – Zambia
The North West Rail project is a build, operate and transfer (BOT) rail infrastructure project for the longest new railway in Southern Africa for over a century. The route of the line will run westwards from Chingola, in northern Zambia, to Jimbe, on the Angolan border, and connect with a new branch line into the Benguela Railway at Luacano, in Angola. The new 590 km railway in Zambia will reopen the Western Corridor to the Angolan port of Lobito, which has been closed for the past 30 years. The railway will service domestic and international traffic for the copper mining industry in northern Zambia and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and allow landlocked Zambia to import oil directly from Angola in the future. The project is in the completion of the bankable feasibility stage with implementation of the first phase of construction expected to begin in late 2014 to early 2015.

•Beitbridge Bulawayo Rail (BBR) – Zimbabwe
Grindrod has a joint controlling interest in Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR), which is a rail concessionaire operating in Zimbabwe. The concession provides a key link in the North–South corridor linking the South African ports of Durban and Richards Bay and the copperbelt in Zambia and the DRC. BBR was formed in 1997 in partnership with National Railways of Zimbabwe to manage the railway concession between Beitbridge and Bulawayo.

The concession included a BOT arrangement to construct 150 km of new track and upgrade 172 km of existing track. The concession, which runs until 2029, completes a missing link between the South African border at Musina and Bulawayo on the North–South corridor and saves significant travel distance compared to the original route through Botswana.

Through Grindrod’s involvement in the concession over the last two years, BBR has invested in new mainline freight locomotives for the corridor, the first such initiative in over a decade. Through the investment in more reliable rolling stock and the injection of additional rail expertise, BBR has also now seen significantly reduced train transit times on the Zimbabwe link of the North–South corridor.  

2. Locomotive Engineering, Sales and Maintenance
The group believes Grindrod Locomotives’ strategy of offering holistic services is hugely beneficial to its customers. It operates, leases, maintains, supplies and repairs fleets throughout Africa. 

During the development phase of new locomotives, it has become clear to Grindrod that Africa has unique needs, such as the narrow Cape gauge predominantly used and the need for tractive effort over speed. Grindrod saw the solution in “Lego-style” modular construction, which led to the ability to provide a custom-built product in the fastest possible time.

From its workshops in Pretoria, Gauteng, Grindrod Locomotives provides locomotive design, engineering and manufacturing solutions. The company assembles new diesel electric locomotives and also refurbishes and upgrades old locomotives. It manufactures the most cost-competitive locomotives for long- and short-haul operations.

In support of the Department of Trade and Industry’s initiative to localise the production of parts and components, which seeks to add to local job creation and contribute to economic development, Grindrod has tripled the manufacturing capacity of its Pretoria plant. It is now capable of manufacturing up to 100 locomotives and 50 shunting locomotives a year.
Grindrod Locomotives’ manufacturing chain is simple and spares are common, which makes aftermarket support cost-effective. As the business expands, the company is enlarging its maintenance footprint by providing regional hubs in several African countries to ensure that operators achieve acceptable locomotive availability rates. Currently, these maintenance hubs service over 120 locomotives a year.

Rebuild projects have also been initiated outside South Africa with success being achieved in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania.

3. Signalling and Train Control Systems
Grindrod has partnered with GEAR Rail technologies – a rail technology solutions business with strategic contracts in Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and South Africa. The business specialises in providing track warrant systems, automated signalling systems and communication systems under various agency and joint venture arrangements with major international rail technology companies seeking to pursue rail infrastructure projects in Africa. GEAR provides fit-for-purpose safety, train control and signalling systems suitable for both low traffic corridors, which are typical in Africa, and high-density and high freight volume environments typical of the most sophisticated of railways.

4. Railway Track Construction and Maintenance
Grindrod’s subsidiary, Grindrod Rail Construction (GRC) – formerly RACEC – is an industry leader in rail track construction, rehabilitation, electrification and maintenance. The private sector companies that GRC works with are primarily mining and commodity companies. The State-owned companies that GRC engages with are primarily rail and port authorities, and local and international entities responsible for building and maintaining rail transport infrastructure. The GRC group has a presence in Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and South Africa and has been in the rail track infrastructure business for over 55 years.

5. Rolling Stock Leasing and Finance
Grindrod Pembani Remgro Leasing Africa (GPR Leasing) is a company formed between Grindrod and Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund to provide innovative and cost-effective leasing solutions to the African rail industry. GPR Leasing provides access to innovative and highly competitive debt funding that enables the company to offer the lowest locomotive rates in the market and provides Africa’s rail operators the leasing solutions they need to unlock the huge potential for growth in the freight rail sector. Currently, GPR Leasing has assets in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe and the business continues to actively promote funded rolling stock solutions to support mining companies, as well as national and private rail operators.]

As rail continues to be the best-suited mode of transport for the movement of bulk cargo, Gindrod Rail’s focus is firmly on the African region, where significant growth in bulk commodity flows is expected to persist in the medium to longer term.
“Our key emphasis is on supporting the logistics requirements for major turnkey infrastructure and mining projects and on providing rolling stock, technology and funding solutions to rail operators in the region.”

“Grindrod remains the only private African rail service provider with focused and diverse, capabilities in infrastructure and operations and the company continues to offer innovative, cost-effective infrastructure and logistics solutions for the market,” the company concludes.