KSB, with original roots going back over 140 years, is today an international pumps, valves and services company with its headquarters in South West Germany. “The global Group has sales volumes of some €2.4-billion and a staff of about 16 000 employees. While Europe is still our home, more than half of our people are currently employed outside Europe, with nearly 500 of them in Africa,” begins Sven Baumgarten, the company’s MD.
As one of the leading producers of pumps, valves and related systems in the world, KSB Pumps and Valves in South Africa has state-of-the art pump manufacturing and assembly facilities in Activia Park, Germiston, which produce to global quality standards.
“Starting with our South African facility here in Germiston, KSB has had a manufacturing presence in Africa since 1959, but our pumps were available for 30 years preceding that, through a local KSB distributor,” he adds.
Describing the company’s core markets, Baumgarten says KSB has developed know-how for a huge variety of pumping applications and pump types, including those for water transport and wastewater treatment; energy; process engineering; building services; mining, slurry and solids transport.
“We have a very well balanced supply chain across mining (26%), manufacturing (18%), chemical and petrochemical (10%), energy (22%), water and wastewater (21%) and construction (3%),” he notes, adding that a the huge range of KSB pump types is available from the company’s South African hub.
On the mining and slurry pump side, Jones adds that KSB also owns a US-based company called GIW – Georgia Iron Works – which is KSB’s technical leaders for slurry pump solutions. “We manufacture these here for the African market, based on the GIW patents and intellectual property, but we brand these pumps KSB for our African markets,” he says.
“Simply put,” continues Jones, “local manufacturing begins with engineering services. We are much more than product suppliers. We manufacture with specific applications in mind so that the pump is a cost-effective best-fit for the pumping task involved.”
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