Screening and vibrating equipment solutions supplier Aury Africa will officially open a new branch in Tete, Mozambique, this month.
“The Mozambique-based branch, registered in February under the name Aury Mocambique Sociedade Unipessoal Limitada, will comprise 500 m2 of combined office and warehouse space,” says Aury Africa MD Mark Houchin.
“We are opening the Tete office and warehouse as we would like to import our screen media and other products directly from China into Mozambique,” he says.
The company’s imported stock is currently stored in Johannesburg and Durban, in South Africa, and sent to Tete when needed, but it aims to improve product availability in Mozambique, thereby shortening the delivery time.
The Tete branch of Aury Africa will stock its standard range of screen and centrifuge spares, including screen media for banana screens, horizontal screens, high-frequency screens, circular-motion screens and flip-flop screens, as well as centrifuge components, baskets and spares.
The Mozambique branch of Aury Africa will also test the needs of the Mozambique mining market for additional products and services, including conveyor splicing and conveyor scraper blades, wear-lined pipes and slurry pumps, as well as pump refurbishment.
“We aim to introduce our new products and services to the mines to ensure that we become more than a supplier of screen media in the area. “We also want to create awareness of our new product offering and deter- mine the need for our new range of cone or jaw crushers and their repair services in Tete,” says Houchin.
He says that Aury Africa chose to invest in a branch in Mozambique as the company had an initial one-year consumables supply contract with Brazilian diversified miner Vale’s Moatize coal mine, which had to be supplied through the company’s Johannesburg branch.
This contract was subsequently renewed for an additional two years, but the delivery terms were changed to ‘delivered to mine’. “This contract was one of the drivers behind establishing a service hub in Tete,” says Houchin.
Aury Africa will also be able to supply its clients in Malawi far more easily through the Tete branch than from the Johannesburg branch.
The company will source administrative and warehouse staff from the local workforce in Mozambique, with marketing visits and technical support provided from Johannesburg and Durban on a regular basis.