South African heavy equipment manufacturer and distributor, Bell Equipment has opened a customer service centre in the northern Mozambique region of Tete, reports Hub Digital Media.
MD of Bell Mozambique, John Ferguson, said: "Bell Tete is strategically placed to serve the Nacala Corridor spatial development initiative and the Beira rail and harbour link. We see huge potential in the region and opening a facility in Tete not only brings our support base as close as possible to our customer base but also complements our existing operations in Malawi, Beira and Nacala where we have relocated services resources and plan to open an additional Customer Service Centre in the near future."
Mike Quin has been appointed as branch manager of Bell Equipment Tete and added: "Currently we have over 100 machines operating in the Tete region. Essentially all our machines in the region are used in mining operations where downtime is critical and good support is essential."
The Tete region has the second largest reserves of coking coal in the world and has attracted the interest of several international mining giants. Infrastructure projects should commence at the end of 2012/beginning of 2013 with coal production ramping up from 2015 onwards to become as big, if not bigger than the Witbank/Middelburg coal region in South Africa.