Basil Read recently acquired three Volvo PL4608 pipe layers from the Babcock International Group, effectively making it the owner of the largest fleet of Volvo pipe layers in Africa.

Babcock is a key supplier to the material handling, road building, transport and construction industries in southern Africa. In June 2000 the company was appointed as exclusive distributor for Volvo Construction Equipment in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho.

The pipe layers will initially be used by Basil Read subsidiary Valente Bros. on the Olifants River Water Resources Project, where the company will be laying approximately 40 km of welded steel pipelines on behalf of the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) for Phase 2 of the project.

Phase 2 entails bulk water transfer pipelines and a storage reservoir intended to supply bulk water for domestic and mining use in the Limpopo Province. Established in 1948 and acquired by Basil Read in 2011, Valente Bros. specialises in the construction of bulk infrastructure, specifically pipeline infrastructure and pipe jacking.

“Notwithstanding the immediate requirements for the Olifants River project, this acquisition also strengthens the Basil Read group’s position in the pipe laying industry, enabling us to tender more competitively for large diameter pipe line construction projects,” says Roelof Van Der Merwe, managing director plant at Basil Read.

The pipe layerswere officially handed over to Basil Read by Babcock on 12 June 2012.