CONDRA has proven itself to be a leading player in South Africa’s overhead crane sector.
This can be seen in the company building its Germiston factory expressly for crane manufacture on a site 22 000m² in area, 8 000m² of which is under roof.
There are two other Condra factories, one in Cape Town and one in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. In the Germiston works, overhead cranes are designed to specification and locally manufactured from some 250 modular sub-assemblies, the main components being hoists, drives, end-carriages, brakes, gearboxes and motors.
Condra makes all 250 except for the motors, hooks and rope, which are imported. Condra’s entire hoist range – from 1 to 500 tons in capacity – is locally manufactured.
This kind of capacity means it’s hard to match the group locally when it comes to market leadership in this industry. Even so, this does not mean that it has things its own way, as offshore competitors provide stiff competition.
“The most aggressive country exporting cranes and components to South Africa is China,” says Condra MD Marc Kleiner.
He warns that though some cranes are price competitive, customers should seriously evaluate the quality of the equipment.
“I am not suggesting that China doesn’t make good cranes, because of course there are Chinese companies that make excellent cranes, but the equipment reaching South Africa is generally the cheapest and most prone to breakdown, because it is only by buying the cheapest crane components that South African importers can compete.”
Customers should also be aware that just because some cranes seem very similar to high profile brands, it does not mean their parts can be easily swopped out for each other.
“These imported hoists are not interchangeable,” said Kleiner, “and neither are their parts, because the Chinese manufacturers had to make slight changes to the original design to avoid accusations of patent infringement.”
“So, the risk for the end user lies in the spare parts needed for maintenance of the installed crane or hoist, because they are not interchangeable between suppliers. If he does not have the necessary spare part in stock, the supplier will try to source it elsewhere. But these parts, even though they look exactly the same, are not.
“What then happens is that the South African crane company is forced to modify the part so that it can do the job. But by doing this, whatever warranty came with the imported hoist is voided. It’s risky, and the part likely won’t perform to expectations.”
Kleiner explained that, in contrast, all Condra’s parts are either manufactured in-house, or are locally sourced from South African suppliers.
“We do have suppliers in Europe but only for rope, hooks and motors. These components are all made to international ISO standards, which means that the end user or their supplier can source a suitable equivalent from any other country.
“It’s a real problem,” continued Kleiner. “South African companies importing cheap hoists or crabs or end carriages or other components from China are not delivering high quality, interchangeable units to the end user. They are not manufactured to any kind of exacting standard.”
