In its quest to expand its footprint in the Middle East and Africa region, Hitachi Construction Machinery Middle East (HMEC) recently signed up a new dealer in South Sudan. Ammars Company, already an established name in the construction machinery and projects arena in the newly-formed country, will now offer Hitachi machines to the South Sudan construction and infrastructure sector, which is poised for an explosion of activity as the country rebuilds and develops,
Recently, the Distributorship Agreement for Hitachi products was signed in front of HMEC and Ammars witnesses at the HMEC regional headquarters in Jebel Ali, Dubai. Ammars was represented by Bereket Petros, Managing Director, Ammars Company, while Manabu Arami, President, HMEC, signed on behalf of Hitachi. The Ammars delegation visiting the HMEC HQ were given an overview of the facilities, the parts and distribution warehouse and the machines on offer in Hitachi’s range that they would offer in South Sudan.
A counter visit also took place of an HMEC team to Ammars Company at Juba, South Sudan, led by Piet Van Bakergem and Aycan Akalin. The HMEC team found that Ammars as a company are well-equipped to meet HMEC’s standards.
Speaking about the HMEC-Ammars tie-up and Hitachi’s ambitions in the wider region, Van Bakergem, General Manager, HMEC, told PMV: “South Sudan is part of HMEC territory from the beginning and we have been working in that region for 10 years now. Back then we decided to make it part of the Sudan operations. But due to the conflict in the region, we decided to separate the two markets because we believed they would be best served by separate dealerships.
“With things having settled down in the region now, Hitachi is back to South Sudan where the possibilities and opportunities have become visible again. At HMEC, we were lucky enough to come into contact at Bauma 2022 in Munich with Ammars Company and we finally decided to sign them up as our dealers in South Sudan ‑ and it looks to be a very solid and promising partnership.
“We expect more of construction-related machines from the Hitachi line-up to be in demand in the South Sudan market, but we are going in with our full line-up, so all Hitachi models that are available in the region will be offered in South Sudan by Ammars.”
On their part, Ammars have also made a big investment in the venture, with a huge premises dedicated to Hitachi. The South Sudanese company had already acquired a 5000 square-metre property next to their offices to build a future commercial facility, including a parts warehouse and workshop. This new area will serve as the Hitachi construction machinery hub and the headquarters of the HMEC dealership in the country.
“HMEC will ship the machines to Mombasa port in Kenya, where they will be offloaded and then be taken by road to Juba in South Sudan,” said Van Bakergem.
Ammars to have exclusively Hitachi rental fleet
He is confident that Hitachi’s footprint in South Sudan market will be a strong one in association with Ammars.
“They have the capability to push Hitachi in the South Sudan market by offering comprehensive back-up support to our customers. Also, they have had a strong presence in the rental market in their region for a long time with their own fleet. And now they have decided to make their fleet exclusively Hitachi. This will serve as a strong example of Hitachi’s leadership in the country’s equipment sector for other construction companies, rental companies and fleet owners in terms of what they select.
“An order for 10-plus medium-sized excavators has already been placed by Ammars. The country has huge opportunities and Ammars has an excellent reputation, so we at HMEC are confident that many more orders will follow.”