The longstanding partnership – established in 2018 – between pump equipment supplier Pham EMS and India-based pump manufacturer Garuda Pumps continues to support the provision of pump solutions and spares to the African industrial and mining sectors.

The relationship with Garuda Pumps is built on “a passion for the supply of efficient industrial pumps, parts and maintenance solutions for African markets”, Pham EMS director Paul Van den Bergh told Engineering News during Electra Mining Africa 2026.

Garuda Pumps’ range of vacuum pumps can be used in numerous industrial engineering, petrochemical plant, manufacturing, mining and water treatment or filtration applications. Its pumps and pump parts are interchangeable with other pump manufacturers.

“[The pumps’] use cases range from the paper industry to brickmaking, soap manufacturing, mining, dewatering and filtration,” he elaborated.

One of the most recent Pham EMs projects, involving a partnership with their centrifugal pump supplier, is a pump upgrade project, completed at Rustenburg Base Metals Refiners’ hydrometallurgical processing plant, whereby the partners supplied more than 30 pumps for its operational processes.

“The pumps support numerous applications and include different configurations such as slurry pumps, spindle pumps, magnetic-drive pumps and peristaltic pumps,” noted Van den Bergh.

In 2024, Pham EMS also completed a project involving the supply of a pump to facilitate the offloading of crude oil from a ship at the Coega Special Economic Zone.

“This project entailed the offloading of 850 000 m3 every hour, with a 917 kW engine pumping crude oil over a distance of 3.6 km.”

Van den Bergh said that while Pham EMS has a range of solutions, its current speciality is magnetic-drive pumps, offered “at 50% cheaper” than those of competitors in the market.

Benefits

The pumps and systems by Pham EMS and Garuda are versatile and can support “all industries in South Africa, the broader African continent, and most international markets”, said Van den Bergh.

The companies provide complementary pump components and casting solutions in numerous materials, including normal casting, polytetrafluoroethylene casting, 316L stainless steel and SAF 2205.

Pham EMS also offers a full turnkey solution: “Normally, the enquiry comes to us and it’s about 10 to 12 weeks for products to be delivered to the customer . . . we decide what to order based on the clients’ requirements and give the information to Garuda and our other partners.”

Once the pump system components are delivered from the suppliers to the Pham EMS facility in Brakpan, Gauteng, the pumps are completely assembled before they are delivered to the client.

Van den Bergh expects fluctuating import costs to be a big challenge in the future, with the unstable rand/dollar exchange rate and fuel cost increases potentially leading to significant profit decreases for clients’ operations.

However, he believes that there will be ongoing business opportunities for Pham EMS and Garuda Pumps that could offset these challenges.