By JASON SOM KAUT
MAJOR heavy equipment dealer UMW Niugini Ltd will next year begin carrying out a K16 million expansion and restructure plan in the country.
Lae-based UMW, which currently maintains all equipment it supplies in Papua New Guinea, said through the exercise, it hoped to enhance its services and create more jobs for Papua New Guineans.
Ross Kelly, product manager, said they were capitalising on the mining and construction boom in the country where demand for their equipment was seen to increase.
Saying that his company was committed to keeping as much work as possible in PNG, Mr Kelly noted that “there is a lot of local potential here and only by improving skills we could create a self-sustaining industry”.
His comments come on the heel of a report in The National last Thursday about outsourcing of support-work for heavy equipment overseas by some heavy machinery dealers and mining companies, resulting in loss of revenue and employment opportunities.
The concerns were raised by Lae-based Earthquip PNG who recently took delivery of a K660,000 cylindrical grinder that will enhance its servicing capability on heavy machinery.
UMW's multi-million restructure would see expansion of its workshop facility to increase the company’s capability in general repair and maintenance and building of a bigger warehouse to hold more parts to support machines and construction of a new component remanufacture shop at its main Lae distribution centre.
“As a company, our policy is to keep as much work in the country as possible and develop local employees with training and providing meaningful career paths for them,” Mr Kelly said.
The specialised remanufacture divisions will enable UMW to take large machine components from mining companies and rebuild them.
“This ensures work that can be done here remains on-shore, the money remains and more employment is created,” Mr Kelly said.
He said the divisions would support UMW products locally with local employees being sent overseas to undergo specialist training to work.
Mr Kelly said 25 employees had already received specialised technical training in Singapore, Australia, Europe and the US.
“They are trained by our suppliers and will be able to bring back the suppliers' knowledge to PNG and keep work in the country and develop the industry,” Mr Kelly said.
The company presently has 228 employees, 30 of them apprentices across four branches in Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul and Vanimo.
UMW is the sole dealer for Komatsu heavy equipment, Atlas Copco drilling equipment, FG Wilson power generators and Stihl products.
Base company Morgan equipment entered PNG in 1971 and went through a couple of name changes until finally settling on UMW in 1993.