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Johannesburg - General Electric (GE) sees the potential to supply more locomotives built in South Africa to customers in the rest of the continent as African governments seek to expand and upgrade railways to boost economic growth.
The US company, which has a partnership with the engineering unit of South African state-owned rail operator Transnet, has recently exported 26 locomotives to Mozambique and is looking for more opportunities, GE SA CEO Thomas Konditi said in an interview in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
African governments are investing in rail infrastructure for freight as road transportation is more expensive, he said.
Transportation and rail in particular “has to be part of any economic growth,” said Konditi, who is also GE’s head of transportation in Africa. “The infrastructure projects across the region (and) the continued growth of rail networks just says that the need for locomotives and wagons and that kind of infrastructure is going to keep going.”
GE and Transnet Engineering are assembling locomotives at a facility east of Pretoria.
The Fairfield, Connecticut-based company was one of four winners of a R50bn contract awarded by Transnet Freight Rail in March last year to supply 1 064 diesel and electric trains over four years. The factory also makes locomotives for export to other African countries under an agreement between the two companies.
“We have a cost competitive, global-quality, first-rate technology product that you can ship out of South Africa,” Konditi said. “Looking forward, if there’s something that we can build here, we’ll try to build it."
