The Cosira Group expands operations in Africa and abroad
10 September 2010
The Cosira Group is proud to announce its involvement with some prestigious constructioncontracts that are currently being executed in Southern Africa, particularly in the mining and power generation sector.
This is according to John da Silva, CEO of the Cosira Group, who says that there is currently significant growth within the power generation sector, which is a strategically important sector of development in Southern Africa at the moment.
As one of the largest structural steel fabricators and erectors in Southern Africa, the Cosira Group, through its various divisions, provides innovative and complete turnkey solutions for the mining and construction industry across sub-Saharan Africa.
In the later part of last year, Cosira was awarded the structural steel contracts for Alstom – initially Medupi Turbine Hall and then in a Joint Venture with Cosira Tubular the Kusile Turbine Hall.
“We are proud to be executing the work on both of these contracts, and believe that the successful completion thereof, will form a firm foundation for our involvement in the power generation sector and hopefully cement a long-term relationship with Alstom,” says da Silva.
Work is also progressing well on the complete structural, mechanical, platework and piping (SMPP) supply and erect order for the upgrade of Xstrata Coal’s ATCOM Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) in Witbank which was recently awarded to the Cosira Group by Sedgman. “It is vitally important for the Cosira Group continue to participate in the coal mining industry which is also experiencing significant growth due to local and export demands, especially related to being an important fuel source for power generation,” says da Silva.
Furthermore Cosira were recently awarded the supply contract for the Riversdale Benga Coal Processing and Washing Plant (CPWP) project, located in Mozambique. Riversdale awarded the structural and platework contract to Cosira through Sedgman. This contract entails the supply and fabrication of approximately 1 680 tonnes of structural steel and platework and is scheduled for completion in November of this year. “The Tete and Moatize areas of Mozambique have great growth potential, and therefore we were delighted to be awarded this contact in the coal rich area of Tete, which will see significant development over the next decade and have therefore established a local presence in the area to accommodate immediate customer demands” added da Silva.
To add to its already extensive international portfolio, the Cosira Group is also pleased to announce that it has been awarded the structural, mechanical, platework, and piping (SMPP) supply and installations for the back-end of a new uranium plant at Trekoppje Mine by AREVA.
“AREVA is a strategically important customer for the Cosira Group, specifically relating to their work in the uranium and power generation industries, which will also see significant growth on the back of cleaner emissions power generation,” says da Silva.
Cosira has also been awarded the additional Unki Feed Conveyor structural, mechanical and piping (SMP) project in Zimbabwe. This award follows the successful completion of the structural, mechanical, pipework and platework installations at the Unki Platinum Mine and Process Plant, 80km from Gweru, on the Zimbabwean Dyke. The Cosira Group, having completed its original scope of work at the Unki Mine in February 2010 for the SMPP supply and installation of the concentrator plant.
Another exciting development for the Cosira Group is the establishment of its new entity, Cosira Communications Global which will be actively involved in the execution of telecommunications infrastructure construction projects, including: tower design and manufacturing, turnkey site design and build, telecommunication implementation, fibre optic projects and managed services. “Cosira Communications Global is a Mauritian-based company, developed initially out of a need to supply lattice angle towers to the cellular industry,” says da Silva. “However over the last few years there has been significant price sensitivity in this industry resulting in many towers are now being supplied out of China and India at significantly reduced prices making the local industry uncompetitive especially due to locally high raw material and labour input costs in comparison to international competitors”
He goes onto say that the Cosira Group then looked at the entire value chain and decided to expand their service offering and offer a complete turnkey value-add - including: site builds, site acquisition assistance, design, civils, installations, fibre optics and managed services - to the telecommunications industry.
Cosira have also partnered with fabricators in China and are supplying steel towers into the African market through the mutually beneficial partnership. “We have established a presence in China to monitor both quality and deliverables to our stringent ISO9001:2008 standards,” he says.
“We see enormous potential in this business and have already expanded our services from South Africa to Zimbabwe and Mozambique. We do have plans to expand further into Angola and later to South America, where we have already started to bid for projects especially in the power line transmission sector. We have established a marketing office in Santiago, Chile and are currently investigating opportunities to grow the company into the South American market,” concluded da Silva.