'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.