HIMOINSA continues to grow in Southern Africa and announces a new subsidiary to open whithin 2016

The new commercial office will cover the markets of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa.

HIMOINSA, the international company that designs, manufactures and distributes electricity generation equipment, intends opening a subsidiary in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in the fourth quarter of this year. The head office of the new subsidiary will be located in Port Elizabeth, supported by nationwide sales and service coverage across South Africa. The subsidiary will also support the wider SADC region, serving customers in the nearby countries of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. South Africa is undoubtedly one of Africa’s leading importers of generator sets. According to sources, South Africa imported $155M of generator sets in 2015, thereby becoming the African country with the greatest demand in the electricity generation market, followed by Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and Libya. HIMOINSA has a successful track record of almost 35 years and has been operating in Africa since the 1990s, with nearly twenty distributors all over the continent. In Angola, the company has an existing subsidiary and 25MW power plant in Angola supporting the local utility, which has been operating successfully since 2013. HIMOINSA has identified Africa as an exciting market with excellent potential for growth, where the customer requirements are well suited to the HIMOINSA product range and superior service. A local management team has already been identified for the Southern Africa subsidiary, providing the business with local employees and vast experience of the power generation business in the region. This management team are excited by the opportunity, believing that the quality and durability of Himoinsa equipment, combined with local engineering support and efficient service intervals is ideal for the African market.

“Our objective is to be close to the market and to bring the needs of the local market to our factory in Europe. That is how we guarantee our customers a made-to-measure product and rapid service” states Guillermo Elum, Sales & Marketing Director for HIMOINSA in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

HIMOINSA will handle the Southern African market from its factories in Europe, guaranteeing top quality products, equipment with a two-year warranty certificate and a 24/7 technical and spare parts service. “All the projects we undertake in South Africa, as is the case throughout the world, include the commissioning of the units, whenever the client so requires, together with specialised on-site training for all the technicians in order to guarantee that the units are perfectly maintained”, Guillermo Elum goes on to say. The company’s Engineering team makes available to the Southern African market the development of a Plug and Play product that ensures a rapid installation and easy configuration in order to increase and/or reduce the power that is generated, depending on each client’s needs, primarily in Power Plant and IPP projects.

“We want to share our technical know-how with our clients in South Africa and we want to offer them a comprehensive support right from the outset and through to the end of each project”, he adds. HIMOINSA has been part of the Yanmar Group since 2015. Yanmar is one of the world’s leading engine manufacturers; its commercial alliance with HIMOINSA has made it possible to combine the former’s Japanese engineering expertise with the latter’s consolidated experience in the manufacture of generator sets.

HIMOINSA’s sectors and reference projects in South Africa

The company has already supplied hundreds of units in the South African market, for mining, construction, agricultural and telecommunication projects. Important mobile telephone companies use HIMOINSA’s generator sets; they can now include a special kit that allows for longer maintenance intervals up to 1000 hours. Among other improvements, the kit includes a larger tank, which supplies extra oil to the engine. While fuel and oil consumption remain the same, the cost of filters is significantly reduced, and so is the downtime, when the equipment is out of operation for maintenance. For this reason, the kit guarantees less waste oil and, therefore, a reduced environmental impact. Also, some generator sets models can incorporate a fuel tank of 1.000L, 10 times bigger than what it is offered as standard, which translates into less trips to the site for refueling operations. Considering that the genset works 8 hours a day, this new feature guarantees up to 70 days of running time.