Headquartered in South Africa’s Mpumalanga town of Middelburg, Dekra Industrial RSA is active in the provision of NDT, inspections, advanced NDT technologies – as well as safety and other training through its Institute of Learning (IOL) – to a wide variety of clients, from power generation and petrochemical to steel processing, automotive manufacturing and many others.
“The business has been in South Africa for the past 38 years, utilising our local footprint not only to service our in-country South African clients; but as a vital gateway into the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. As such, we have a great base from which to strategically target the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), power generation and many other pivotal infrastructure projects in the region, including those in Southern Mozambique,” says Johan Gerber, Managing Director at Dekra Industrial RSA.
In addition to achieving successes in countries such as Uganda and Tanzania and project successes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Botswana, Dekra Industrial – with a registered company in Mozambique – is fully committed to pursuing new opportunities in the country’s Southern region and in “driving general awareness of NDT and compliance where it is needed most,” Johan points out.
Over the border
Mozambique, with several ports and key logistics corridors, is a principal gateway into the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). Host to various minerals and resources and among the top five countries worldwide in new natural gas findings, coking coal, rubies and graphite, the country offers a wealth of significant opportunities.
In Southern Mozambique, the Maputo province alone is pivotal in providing growth opportunities for the industrial sector, owing to multimillion dollar LNG projects near the capital; as well as the establishment and ongoing development of various industrial parks hosting companies active in manufacturing, maintenance and machinery, metals, downstream aluminium, construction, civil engineering, oil and gas and more.
Dekra is no stranger to this region, having successfully completed various projects in Mozambique. These include the provision of services on a gas project in Temane; as well as on a South African petrochemical company’s gas pipelines.
“It is important to us that wherever we go, we add value to the communities we serve, and job creation – in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic – is needed now more than ever throughout Africa,” Johan emphasises.
Fourth largest in the world
In a reflection on the company’s strength in terms of its NDT and inspection offerings, he adds that Dekra – as the fourth largest inspection company in the world – has a dedicated research and development department which actively develops advanced technologies and specialised techniques, ensuring that the company is always at the forefront of innovation in NDT.
“With fast-growing areas in NDT throughout Africa, one of the biggest opportunities for us, for example, is drone inspections. Dekra globally has a department dedicated to developing software specifically for drone inspections, which find wide application on the continent. These include for example inspecting wind farm turbines, mines or power generation facilities via drone.
“While transportation of radiography testing equipment presents several legislative or logistical challenges in Africa, we have replaced radiography with micro-phased array technology. This advanced technology has seen significant uptake and it allows for testing on much smaller components. When NDT is not conducted properly and in compliance with the prevailing industry safety and legislative requirements, the results can potentially be catastrophic,” Johan concludes.
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