Engineering firm scores high on empowerment

Pitch Coke Fabrication, machining, proof-loading and maintenance company Arlona Engineering, of Durban, has been rated as a level-two contributor to broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE), according to the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI’s) qualifying small enterprises scorecard.This means that Arlona’s customers can count 125% of their spend with the company towards their own preferential procurement spend in their BBBEE scorecards.Arlona Engineering, which is one of KwaZulu-Natal’s designers and manufacturers of bulk handling and lifting equipment for the shipping sector, has formally been assessed by a BBBEE verification agency, DRG Siyaya.“DRG Siyaya bases ratings on the codes of good practice and gazetted sector charters,” says Arlona Engineering MD Steve Christy. “This evaluation involves the company’s level of compliance to four of the seven empowerment factors identified by the DTI, which include ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development and corporate social investment,” he explains.Christy says that Arlona’s BBBEE strategy has had a powerful impact on the expansion and improvement of business operations and adds that the company believes that this status augurs well for the future growth of the company.The company also offers an engi- neering repair service, enhanced by a specialised proofloading facility for lifting equipment. In accordance with new legislation, Arlona Engineering is now registered as a lifting machinery entity and has a commitment to top safety and quality standards and procedures as set out by the Engineering Council of South Africa.The company’s proofloading division is equipped with a test rig that is certified to proofload up to 100 t, and is geared to test and certify any lifting equipment.Arlona Engineering keeps abreast of the latest regulations applicable to the lifting sector and adheres to all legislation gazetted by the Department of Labour. All refurbishing and testing procedures meet international shipping standards, including Bureau Veritas, Lloyds Register, American Bureau of Shipping standards and the South African Bureau Standards.The company’s fully computerised fabrication facility is equipped to design and manufacture grabs, hoppers, container spreaders, lifting equipment and replacement parts, as well as a wide range of cargo handling equipment.Recent successes for Arlona Engineering include the design and fabrication of a 25-mm hydraulic grab for bulk materials handlers, Bulk Connections, which is currently being used at the Durban harbour for discharging vessels. The company also completed a project for the fabrication of a mobile stacking conveyor used for the bulk handling and stacking of coal and other commodities at the Port of Durban.Steel fabrication, construction and erection company Mechgen recently commissioned Arlona Engineering to manufacture forty 8-m3-capacity skips for Transnet Port Terminal (TPT). These robust skips will be used for the loading of iron-ore into the hull of vessels at the Port of Richards Bay.Christy says that Arlona Engineering has completed other successful projects of a similar nature for TPT, including the fabrication of nine of the biggest skips in operation at Richards Bay. These 20-m skips are used for handling