'Fat Cat' consignment breaks records

IT WAS an historic moment in the eventful history of Barloworld Equipment – the arrival in the port of Cape Town of the biggest single load of Caterpillar equipment yet to land on South African shores. Destined for customers in South Africa, Zambia, Angola, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the huge cargo of 40 Cat machines, mostly intended for the mining industry and weighing a total of 2 035 tons, arrived from the US aboard the chartered vessel, The African Kite. The remainder of the cargo, comprising 36 trucks, bulldozers, wheel loaders and various other machines, on top of separate components such as buckets and bowls, were painstakingly off-loaded in an operation lasting more than two days, headed inland on 61 lowbed trucks. After completing its mission in the Mother City port, The African Kite headed for Durban, where the remaining equipment, three Zambia-bound off-highway trucks and a large wheel loader for Angola, were offloaded and moved on 16 lowbeds. Penny Paisley, general manager of Barloworld Logistics Africa, tells FTW all the machines reached their destinations within two to seven working days, the consignment moving through seven provinces in South Africa – theWestern and Northern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.