It is Caterpillar’s first equipment assembly unit in South Africa, and marks a milestone in the partnership between Caterpillar and Barloworld Power, its southern African dealer for Energy and Transportation.
The generators, supplied in kit form, are assembled locally, contributing to the drive for localisation and enabling the transfer of new and valuable skills to South African employees. It also enables the Cat units to compete on a more even footing with locally manufactured equivalents.
The assembly unit was set up with the assistance of experts from Caterpillar’s power systems assembly factory in India and is being managed and staffed by Barloworld Power.
Initially the facility will assemble the Cat i6 and 400 series generator sets, ranging from 400kVA to 1,000kVA, and Barloworld plans to produce about 500 units/year.
The first two pilot 550 kVA generator kits, supplied by Caterpillar in China, were sold before they arrived in South Africa.
