Quentin van Breda, CEO SA French says, “For many years we were known as tower crane people, although the lifting and telescopic handler side of the business has, over the years, increased the part it plays.” So too, he feels that the synergies of material and personnel carriers [hoists] dove-tail with the tower crane environment.

He explains, “The material handling hoists and tower cranes are put up by the same people, the electronics require the same skills and people to fix and run the equipment, and in 85% of cases, we are dealing with the same client.” SA French offers a complete solution to the lifting and handling challenge, conducting site visits to assess the viability of any one scenario; rather using an array of suitable lifting apparatus, over the more lucrative prospect of simply selling or hiring out the more expensive option: a tower crane.

Quentin describes how, in the mid-80s he first came across the concept of hoists and working platforms – replacing or complementing tower cranes – while on a trip abroad, attending an equipment expo. He realised the flexibility that using hoists offered, but attempts at introducing the concept to the South African construction sector fell, for many years, on deaf, inflexible ears, while they continued to focus on the use of tower cranes and scaffolding for work at height applications.

He adds, with mild irritation, “Everywhere, all over the world, countries were using the working platforms and hoists – but not here in South Africa!”

Recently however, the scene has changed, as more frequently the use of hoists is being viewed favourably withn the mining and construction sectors.

Hoist benefits
Quentin explains that in the construction of say, a typical office block, the use of a tower crane is a forgone conclusion. “However,” he continues, “once a building has been topped-out, the tower crane is barely used.” He adds, “The tower crane productivity probably falls off by 50%, but it is kept on site as they still need to get bricks and mortar up to the various levels to do the brickwork and other finishes.” However, owing to the inability to get the crane hook onto completed floors, other than the roof, access to the various levels in a multi-storey building are limited, and thus the use of a hoist – firmly and safely secured to the outside of the structure – affords access [by personnel, and for materials handling] to areas that are no longer possible to access with the tower crane.

Quentin continues, “The average time it takes for workers to walk up multiple flights of stairs [often burdened with the materials and equipment of the trade] in a building without a lift system, makes the use of a hoist an obvious solution, as it dramatically improves productivity and impacts positively on cost.”

Quentin uses an example by way of explanation, “When we were involved at Michelangelo Towers, we actually timed how long it took a worker to walk up the tower from top to bottom. An average worker took 20 minutes, whereas with a hoist on the outside, he’d be at his workstation within 5 minutes.

“With this option,” Quentin explains, “on an average building, you release the [costly] tower crane two to three months earlier than normally scheduled.”

The other benefit of using hoists is the improved safety factor. Quentin expands, “With a hoist, the worker is moved safely to the correct level, in a secure environment, with little chance of slipping or falling off rickety scaffolding or semi-constructed badly lit stairwells.”

When SA French rents out a hoist or tower crane they supply an experienced and qualified operator with the equipment, ensuring a professional and safe solution to the customer’s task at hand.

This article will give various viewpoints, from rental companies to OEMS and end users across a number of equipment sectors.

THE LIFTING EQUIPMENT OEM

In the period up to 2004 the lifting industry experienced a glut of crane rebuilds, a trend which has noticeably slowed down over the intervening period.

SA French CEO, Quentin van Breda said that in the preceding period the industry saw equipment of all ages and conditions going through the rebuilding/remanufacturing process due to economic pressure. “This was not ideal, as a number of cranes which should have been scrapped were having a second life breathed into them at major expense. Apart from throwing good money after bad, the safety aspects related to these machines was not considered thoroughly.

“I personally feel that the life of the crane is not substantially extended by subjecting it to a rebuilding process and customers should rather consider investing their money in a new crane,” van Breda added.

“Just after 2004 building activity became brisk and because we foresaw this upturn and the subsequent lack of new cranes, we pre-ordered a number of Potain cranes, which were sold even before they reached Durban harbour. This quick turnaround on new cranes meant that there were very few requests for refurbished cranes,” van Breda explained.

“At the start of last year we started experiencing the first rustles of discontent in the economy and with the problems Eskom was having in supplying a regular and sustained energy supply, coupled with the spiralling interest rate, new building activities were severely curbed. A cautious and nervous market outlook resulted in a drastic reduction in spending on new cranes,” said van Breda.

“One would think that this would have resulted in an upsurge in the rebuilding market, however this has not been the case and we find that customers are renting in cranes rather than committing themselves to any type of capital investment. In a small number of cases, for example on the mines where the duty cycle is a lot shorter than on construction sites, there is a small degree of rebuilding activity,” van Breda added.

Van Breda explained that all rebuilds on customer’s Potain tower cranes, as well as on the Merlo telescopic handlers distributed by SA French, are undertaken at SA French’s well-equipped facilities. “We have ISO 9001:2000 quality accreditation and our technical and maintenance staff has been trained to international standard so they are the best equipped to undertake such projects. Machines are disassembled and each component is carefully checked and analysed for wear and degradation.

“Thereafter we undertake the actual rebuild or remanufacture and on completion we present the customer with a comprehensive service file on the machine which catalogues what components were replaced, complete with serial numbers, where applicable. In this way both the customer and SA French have a complete history of the machine’s new service life in order to predict when regular maintenance checks should be carried out,” van Breda concluded.

Anti-collision technologies that can be retrofitted to existing cranes have been introduced and are popular worldwide. Philippa McAlister probes the merits of this technology.

Tower cranes are the most visible piece of equipment on construction sites, and it is critical that they are installed, maintained and operated by competent personnel. Failure can and has lead to major incidents in the past and in response the construction industry is looking at various measures to improve the safety of the sector in order to reduce the risks that end up causing accidents. One of these technologies that is relatively new to South Africa is an anti-collision device that can be retrofitted to a tower crane.

Complexity Complicates
The complexity of buildings has increased dramatically over the years, which has resulted in construction methods that involve bringing cranes closer together. Consequently, this has created extended zones of interference between cranes, the direct consequence of which is the appearance of a new risk – the collision of the cables of high cranes and the jibs or counter-jibs of lower cranes. At the same time, a demand for efficient tools in order to restrict the movement of loads over sensitive areas has arisen.

In order to eliminate the collision risk without penalising a site’s productivity and to provide crane operators with efficient and helpful tools, such as working area limitation (zoning), several companies have been involved in the development of anti-collision systems. One such company is SMIE, a French company that developed and marketed the first anti-collision system in 1985. Readers will recall that Bombela installed this system on tower cranes at three Gautrain sites. Liebherr supplied Bombela with all of the tower cranes and worked closely with SMIE.

One of SMIE’s devices is the AC243 anti-collision system, which is intended to assist the crane operator in preventing the collision of two or more interfering cranes. It allows the operator to detect and anticipate the risk of the moving elements of his crane and those of the adjoining ones running into each other. When a collision risk arises, the system immediately takes over and stops the dangerous movement, as well as providing the means to prohibit sailing over protected zones.

The AC243 is adaptable to all types of cranes, and according to SMIE, it can, therefore, treat sites with any combination of cranes simultaneously. SMIE also claims that the system is easy to install, especially since its connecting cables are all equipped with industrial connectors. The display unit not only keeps the crane operator posted about their environment relative to anti-collision functions, but also provides other precious information, such as the trolley position on the jib and the slewing angle. “Our primary concern,” tells SMIE, “is to ensure safety without decreasing work site output.”

Typical risk situations include:

• The hoist rope of a high crane being hit by the jib of a low crane. The load is jolted and the banksman is thrown off balance.
• The load hitting the jib of a low crane and spilling part of the load, which could fall on workers below.
• A badly slung load dropping on a public area.
• A hoist rope accessing a dangerous area, such as a high voltage line.
• The jib of a crane hitting the mast of an interfering crane, or another obstacle.

Getting The Basics Right First
However, is this technology suitable for South Africa? “It is suitable for everywhere in the world,” says Quentin van Breda, CEO of SA French. “However, I think South Africa still needs to get the basics right.” According to Van Breda, South Africa tends to ‘under crane’ jobs because of its so called ‘cheaper labour’. “So, where we use one crane in South Africa, they would probably use three cranes for the same job in Europe. That automatically reduces the problem and the need for anti-collision technology.”

Van Breda says that this technology works in a similar way to a three-phase traffic light. “If the light is red then you can’t go and you can only turn left if the left arrow is green. But, on a site, this technology is a little more complicated because it will stop a crane dead in its tracks. Now, if you add a device called anti-collision technology, you can stop the crane from hoisting, slewing and travelling backwards and forwards, so for each function there is a left and right.

“Everyone is stretched already just trying to ensure that the crane operates like it was designed to and then you get called out to site because the crane won’t hoist. And, of course, it won’t hoist because it is in a collision zone,” tells Van Breda. “You would have to make training mandatory so that everyone understands up front how the system works, including all of the foremen, so that everyone on site has an understanding of how the technology works.

Until or unless it is brought into legislation, the general consensus is that people in the industry would rather focus on improving what they have. Van Breda cites Europe as an example in which any crane that exceeds 50 m has to have a personal hoist in order to transport the operator into the cab. “But, there is absolutely no talk of that ever being applied here,” imparts Van Breda. This issue has never been seen as important and one hears idle banter around a site about keeping crane operators fit, which is fine if you are not the one that has to climb to 90 m at least four times a day. “I think there are far more practical issues that need addressing first that would really make the lives of operators and the safety of cranes much better, without getting terribly sophisticated,” stresses Van Breda.

First Things First
One area that Van Breda mentioned where there is a distinct lack of resources is in terms of inspectors. There are not enough inspectors to go around to building sites to check whether operators are in fact qualified to be doing what they are doing. “My concern has been, and continues to be, that safety is not what it should be,” says Van Breda. Another issue is the strategic placement of cranes and the fact that often there is no consideration of the direction in which a crane is placed. A simple adjustment can make a huge difference to operators, especially in a situation where they have the sun in their eyes all day.

The question of a crane register being kept for the entire lifespan of a crane is also an issue of concern for many in the industry, and Van Breda is particularly vocal about his concerns. “Instead of a mandatory register for the period a crane is used on a particular project and the register being scrapped once the job has been completed, every crane should have a ‘bible’, just like the service record and log book for a car,” imparts Van Breda.

The remuneration of crane operators also differs when compared with Europe. In Europe operators are frequently one of the most highly paid on a site, which is certainly not the case in South Africa. “I honestly feel we should be focusing on the basics first,” stresses Van Breda

First World Standards
Safety falls under the umbrella of the Department of Labour, so when the department introduced legislation with regards to companies having to be registered as lifting machinery entities, this included the registration of the people that you had in your company who erected, commissioned and handed over cranes. The registration was then ‘subcontracted’ to the Engineering Council of South Africa, with the result that very few were registered as they applied the correct criteria. However, according to Van Breda, it was soon realised that the entire industry would be ‘strangled’, so to speak. “I think it is a double-edged sword,” says Van Breda, “because if you look at it practically we cannot necessarily apply first world standards to an emerging market, because we are in a state of change and it is just not practical.”

Perhaps we need to apply the existing legislation without introducing any more. Van Breda draws an analogy of going to a restaurant and telling the owners that they have a wonderful menu, but you would prefer it to be three pages longer. “We already have extremely good legislation,” imparts Van Breda, “we just have to make it work.”

In terms of the standard of operators, Van Breda is of the opinion that all of the instrumentation in the world should not substitute the quality of an operator. And, if one was to compare the aviation industry with the construction industry, despite most aircraft using ‘fly-by-wire’ technology today, there would be a public outcry if pilots were done away with.
Although health and safety is essential in all areas of construction, and while this technology can certainly assist with the avoidance of collisions, it should by no means substitute a first-rate crane operator and the importance of undertaking detailed planning and risk assessments, ensuring robust and thorough examinations and maintenance regimes are in place and undertaking more site inspections.

According to SA French training manager Tilly Koortzen, the company applied for the accreditation in February this year and received its certification a short time later.

“We have been unofficially training Learners since last year but now we have the TETA’s stamp of approval and all unit standards completed on our courses are transferable anywhere within South Africa. We currently offer training to 18.1 (currently employed) and 4.1 (never employed) Learners in the operation of cranes and forklift trucks and we are awaiting our certification for the extension of scope to allow us to train Learners on telescopic handlers and in First Aid, OHS, AIDS awareness and other related facets,” Koortzen says.

“Our training department, under Titus Mashaba and myself, provides training to Unit Standards 8039 and 8038 either at our in-house training centre or on a customer’s premises or sites,” Koortzen says.

Koortzen, an accredited Assessor and Moderator, says that the course for 18.1 Learners runs over a five day period and each trainer can each take four Learners at one time. “For electives like First Aid training, we can each take 10 Learners,” she adds.

“By providing both our own staff as well as customers’ staff with accredited training we are arming them with the necessary knowledge to operate large capital equipment in a safe and productive manner,’ Koortzen concludes.

“We delivered the crane to site last year but due to logistical issues on site, the crane was only commissioned in May 2009,” Quentin van Breda, managing director of Alt-X-listed SA French, says.

At the time of its delivery in early 2008, the crane had the largest lifting capacity in South Africa. “This has since been superseded by the 40 ton capacity Potain MD 1100 which we delivered to Eskom’s Medupi project for Kentz Constructors early in 2009,” van Breda explains.

The DWEA has a long history of using Potain cranes. “We bought our first Potain in the 1970’s from the local agent at that time, Triplejay, and when SA French was formed and took over the agency our relationship continued. We now own six Potain cranes, most of them considered to be large capacity units,” John Baker, Acting Director of Construction at DWEA, says.

Van Breda explains that a long standing relationship with DWEA does not necessarily guarantee a contract award. “We tendered for the project along with other well known suppliers and our crane was deemed the most suitable for the project from the list of remaining successful tenderers. Crucial to success was the ability to provide a specific freestanding height and capacity for the mechanical lifts that would be required.”

The De Hoop Dam, which is being built by DWEA’s own construction division, is a roller compacted concrete (Rollcrete or RCC) structure while the various structures around the dam are constructed with standard concrete and reinforcing steel. “The dam lends itself to the mass production nature of Rollcrete and entails delivering the concrete to site in trucks or on conveyors where it is spread by a bulldozer then compacted with a vibratory roller. We will be pouring approximately 975 000 m3 of concrete in this manner,” Baker adds.

The new crane is currently sited to lift the piping into place and will move to its final position at the outlet works in September, where it will remain until December 2011. “We have currently commissioned the crane with a 80 metre jib, although the critical radius of 17.3 metres with 20 ton lifting capacity is currently required. Once the crane moves into its final position, it will be re-erected with a 60 metre jib with a critical lift capacity of 6.9 tons. The crane has a maximum jib length of 80 metres with a lifting capacity of 31 ton at that reach,” van Breda says.

The Potain MD485 is a very modern, full specification crane with sophisticated hoist, slew and trolley mechanism, making it a very efficient crane. “However, the selling points for the DWEA were the crane’s capacity, speed and freestanding height,” van Breda says.

Van Breda added that the types of projects presently underway have remained pretty static. “Basically we are still seeing a number of residential and mixed use developments and it is on these projects that tower crane usage is critical. However, a new trend is developing and telehandlers are becoming an even more common sight on these sites.

“The multi-use flexibility of the telescopic handler is starting to be better understood and accepted by the market and while there are numerous clients who already own telehandlers, they are also hiring in additional telehandlers because of the demand for the machines on site.”

Van Breda said that the industry was “…on a big spend for the past few years but this has slowed down of late, hence the increase in rentals. We predict that the next big spend will come from the civils sector of the industry. We anticipate that civils will be a combination of outright purchase and rental, with the rental units being used mostly for the short term contracts.”

According to van Breda, the most successful rental tool at the moment is the 4 ton, 17 metre Merlo telehandler. The popularity in tower cranes has been across the full range from the hydraulic self-erecting cranes through to the 60 to 65 metre radius cranes, making it difficult to pinpoint a particular tower crane as the ‘winner’.

“The bottom line is that we have invested in rental machines to the tune of R5Om, including tower cranes, telehandlers and hoists. We do not see a downturn in rental demand, if anything we foresee an increase and we will appropriately increase our rental fleet in the next 12 months to accommodate this.”

Van Breda said that the market has also expanded into non traditional fields like steel erection, petrochemical and mining with tower cranes, telescopic handlers and hoists now being used far more extensively than before. “There are definite cost effectiveness advantages to using a grouping of synergistic lifting products on site. Tower cranes have the advantage of being able to safely lift heavy loads at height, as well as having a large radius combined with a very small footprint. Telehandlers, on the other hand, have a good lifting capability combined with all-wheel drive/all-wheel steer.

He added that: “As far as hoists are concerned we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of hoists on rental and this is the return to a methodology that was commonplace in the 1970s whereby sites were covered not only by tower cranes but there was also ancillary lifting equipment on site.”

It is clear that an intimate understanding of the market requirements and conditions allowed SA French several months ago to foresee the need for additional rental machines in its fleet and hence the company is now well positioned to supply this demand in industry.

“We made a conscious decision to put brand new as well as younger than five year old machines into the rental fleet, ensuring that our customers have access to newer technology and reliable equipment,” van Breda concluded.

“The rationale behind this decision is that no one in East Africa rents tower cranes or any form of access equipment and there is a lot of potential for rental in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania which are our primary target markets at the moment,” Warwick van Breda, operations director at AltX listed SA French, says.
 
“We have extensive knowledge of working on the African continent together with our experience as the continent’s largest tower crane rental company,” he adds.

SA French has a well established business in South Africa with a strong sales record and a reference base in tower cranes, telescopic handlers, passenger and materials hoists. “We provide 24 hour support and backup for all our equipment whether it is for the items we sell or those we rent out. We pride ourselves on our parts availability as well as our lead time on new orders. By anticipating market trends we are able to cater to customer demands as they arise,” van Breda says.

He says that this proactive attitude towards customer satisfaction is one of the major differentiators in SA French’s ongoing success in southern Africa and will indeed serve the company well in this new venture.

“Operating such a venture in Africa requires flexibility, in that we are able to provide a big enough range to suit a variety of customers from the major firms to house builders. Our rental fleet will be built up to ten units, and should it become necessary, it will naturally be further expanded,” van Breda concludes.

THE Sunday Times’s back yard is a building site. Four major construction projects are under way in Rosebank and the whirr of electric tower  cranes  continues night and day, and the skyline is now a lattice-work of girders and booms swinging hoppers of cement and pieces of steel through the air.

The  cranes  dominate the skyline across north Johannesburg. There are 12 tower  cranes  within a 2km radius of Sandton City, three of them looming over the Gautrain station site.

Then there are two more on the side of the Rosebank-Rivonia road; others reach into the sky above the Gautrain terminus in Braamfontein. Rosebank alone has eight, plus one crawler crane in the bowels of the Gautrain site.

It’s not Dubai, the city where the silhouette of  cranes  etches the morning sky from one end of the city to the other, but it’s still impressive.

And unlike Dubai, where many construction projects are lying idle as the credit crunch bites, Johannesburg’s tower  cranes  whirr away continuously. For now, anyway.

In March last year, before the recession word was on everyone’s lips, an estimated 125000 tower  cranes  were operating around the world, according to Safety Solutions, a US construction industry newsletter.

A fair number of those — 250 or so, according to Warwick van Breda, operations director of tower crane supplier SA French — are operating in South Africa, with the Gautrain project and the 2010 stadiums accounting for a sizeable chunk of the work.

Van Breda notes that the big users in the past decade have been China, Dubai and Russia. “Before the downturn, the Russians were taking about 400  cranes  a year.”

Putting a value on the Rosebank crane farm is not as easy as counting them, however. “It’s a modular thing,” says Van Breda. “About 50% of the value is on the top and the other 50% is in the mast”.

The cost of a tower crane with a 50m jib and a 40m mast is about R2.5-million, which means there is about R20-million worth of tower crane slinging loads across the Rosebank skyline as you read this.

As the prospects of a recession loom, however, many contractors are opting to rent  cranes  from companies like SA French. The rates are better: R50000 a month and you can give the crane back when construction is done. “Using a crane will knock at least 50% off the cost of handling materials,” Van Breda adds.

Once Rosebank’s construction works are complete, the  cranes  will move to other projects. Local engineering bodies say the outlook remains good, with petrochemicals projects and power stations likely to see the industry through any lean times ahead.

HOW IT WORKS
Up time: Tower  cranes  consist of a mast (the upright bit) and a jib, the horizontal part from which the load is slung. The  cranes  take an average of two days to erect. To gain height, the whole crane is lifted by another crane and new sections are slotted into the mast from the bottom. Since the crane is usually the tallest piece of equipment on the site, its base is bolted onto a concrete pad. The base is joined to the mast, with the gears and motors at the top.

How do they work? Electric tower  cranes  work off 380-volt power. The operator sits in the tiny enclosed cab under the boom with a mostly uncluttered view of the building site. The operator will almost always have an assistant on the ground to help place the loads exactly.

Is the pay good? Operating a tower crane requires great skill and operators tend to be paid more than their peers in the industry. In the US, pay scales for crane operators range from $30 to $33 per hour — little different from other heavy machinery operators — but crane operators tend to rack up more overtime. Locally, a crane operator can expect to earn about R4000 to R6000 a month, says Pat Moncur, chairman of Engineering Council of South Africa’s Lifting Machinery Inspectors Committee. Naturally, a head for heights is desirable.

Is it dangerous? According to an International Labour Organisation datasheet, hazards facing tower crane operators include the following: “falls from heights”; “blows to or crushing of the head or other parts of the body by swivelling loads or crane parts”; “entanglement of clothing, hair, beards, hands or feet in moving parts of machinery, belts, ropes, chains etc”; and “lightning strikes”. Lightning is only a problem if the crane has not been earthed properly which, Van Breda says, is extremely rare.

That’s not all. With their work station sometimes tens of metres up in the air, crane operators are exposed to the vicissitudes of hot and cold weather, and extreme sunlight. Biological hazards include “bites from snakes, rodents and insects on building sites”; psycho-social factors include irregular hours and working at night and over weekends.

Article courtesy of the Business Times (Featured March 01, 2009)

Jabulani was married to Nombulelo Cyndy and they had two children together. He made a great contribution to the company and was admired by all who knew him for his knowledge and charismatic manner. The directors and employees of SA French will miss him and extend their condolences to his family.

This coincided with a decision by the Manitowoc Crane Group to terminate its existing sub-distribution agreement in the Western Cape in September 2007. SA French was subsequently offered the exclusive distribution rights for Potain in the Western Cape.

Van Breda points out that the company’s core strategy has been to provide customers with a quality service. “This means that we stock a substantial fleet of our products for rental to the local market. In addition, we are also able to provide our customers with the option to purchase the products on either a rent-to-buy scenario or as an outright purchase.

“Our available range includes top slewing Potain tower cranes as well a new-generation hydraulic self erecting Potain tower crane; Merlo telescopic handlers; Merlo self-loading truck mixers; 1- and 1.5-ton Torgar personnel hoists and 1.5-, 2- and 2.5-ton Torgar materials hoists and working platforms,” van Breda says.

“All units are either new or less than two years old, to ensure reliability and continuity of operation for our customers,” van Breda adds. “If one considers that in general the average age of tower cranes in the Western Cape at that stage was 15 years, the benefits of bringing in such a young fleet are substantial.”

Van Breda points out that along with the reliable and modern fleet, the company has invested time and money in sourcing top-notch personnel to run the facility and operate the equipment. “We have a very strong and experienced team of 18 people who are all passionate about our brands. This includes a dedicated operator for each item of plant hired out as well as two teams of four members each on the service side.”

To date the biggest demand in the rental fleet has been for the Potain self-erecting cranes while the Potain topless cranes top the list of desirable items for sale to end users. “We have sold two of these cranes to date and we currently have four models of cranes in stock for interested parties,” van Breda says.

Van Breda explains that the cranes allocated to the rental fleet are high specification and can be used alongside customers’ own cranes in a supplementary mode. “Since the economic downturn there has been an understandable tightening of belts and whereas customers were happy to invest in their own equipment before, they are looking to the rental route due to uncertainty as to the utilisation of the plant in the years to follow.

“We are comfortable working with customers to devise the best combination of options for their particular needs and budgets and see the relationships as long term, rather than just project based,” he adds.

The company currently has a Potain MCT68 out on hire to a 20 month contract for two residential building projects for Gossard and Harding in Camps Bay and will be delivering two Potain MC 85B’s to site at the end of February.

Van Breda explains that the company is dedicated to training both its own staff as well as the operational staff of its customers, to the highest CETA standards. “We have our own accredited training centre and we have three trainers who travel to our Cape Town office to train our staff and customers on a regular basis on all the machines that we own and sell.

“In a short space of time we have found a niche for ourselves in Cape Town, which is based on a number of factors already mentioned as well as our willingness to operate anywhere between Mossel Bay in the east to Namibia in the west,” van Breda says.

“Add to this the fact that SA French is the only registered lifting machinery entity (LME) working on tower cranes and hoists in the Western Cape, and it equates to a very positive outlook for us going forward,” van Breda concludes.