Local service hubs are there for you
The services business, including spare and wear parts, and performance contracts today account for 53 percent of the net sales of Metso’s Mining and Construction business segment. We serve our customers from over 70 service hubs globally. Alongside major mining projects, the number of local hubs will grow rapidly in the near future.
“With the opening of new service centers, we aim to place Metso’s service personnel even closer to our customers, where they need us to strengthen the relationships with them,” says João Ney Colagrossi, President of Services business line.
“Our customers can today accurately select the job they need. We can execute any service task, from preventive maintenance and inspection to a complete lifecycle assessment for operating a mine or aggregates plant,” Colagrossi adds.
According to Colagrossi, Metso continuously develops new service contract models according to the customer’s needs. “A good example of our service offering is the new cost-per-ton-based wear parts agreement. There, our customer just pays according to the calculation of the wear that has occurred; they don’t have to purchase a stack of wear parts for their plant,” he explains.
This is where the growth comes from
Metso operates an extensive service hub network, covering six continents and a number of important mining and construction clusters. We serve our customers in Australia, for example, through six different service hubs. South America, the Nordic countries and Russia fall within the geographical areas where new Metso service centers are being built alongside the ongoing mining boom.
In northern Sweden, Mining and Construction runs three successful service centers, located in Kiruna, Gällivare and Luleå. Following two recent service contracts with Northland Resources, a fourth center will be built in Pajala, near the new Kaunisvaara iron ore mine.
“We currently have a service staff of 110 in our service centers, mainly serving companies like Boliden and LKAB. The Pajala location will further add to the number of our personnel. Our new premises will be completed during the third quarter of this year,” says Christer Brännström, General Manager of the Swedish service hubs.
According to the customer, the contract with Metso will maximize the uptime of the iron ore process line: “As a cost-per-ton contract, it gives us a good idea of what our future plant expenditure will be over an extended period of time, as well as of the total investment involved,” says Peter Pernlöf, Chief Operations Officer, Northland Resources.
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Metso service hubs include
- Trained and certified service technicians
- Interface with Metso global product centers to provide engineering and product knowledge and support
- Rebuild and repair capabilities, including machining, welding, disassembly, reassembly, spare parts supply and field service expertise
- Regional / local spares and wears stock to support the customer
- Support for life-cycle services contracts
- Health, safety and environmental parameters to meet regional and local requirements
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Highest standard mining service in South America
In South America, new Metso service centers with state-of-the-art technology are being built in Antofagasta, Chile, and Arequipa, Peru, and will allow Metso to respond immediately to key customers’ requirements in the region.
At the Antofagasta service center, construction is already well under way. With an installation of over 12,000 square meters, it will be the biggest service center in the country.
The premises are due to be completed by the end of August and the new service center is expected to employ 50 people when opened. It will focus on the manufacture, repair and reconditioning of equipment and components used in large-scale mining industry. Another center with an area of 11,000 square meters was also built in Arequipa.
Cost-per-ton agreement in action
At present, Metso is hiring personnel to start up one of the company’s biggest services contracts, signed in May 2011 with Russian Copper Company. Metso is supplying minerals processing equipment and services to RCC for its new Mikheevsky copper operation in the Chelyabinskya region in southwestern Russia. The service contract extends more than six years and includes a team of more than 130 Metso on-site personnel and service parts supply. It covers maintenance, planning and operational assistance, process and product support services, as well as wear and spare parts and components for the comminution circuit.
“We will not only be supplying the equipment, but also maintaining it, assisting in the operations and continuously monitoring the performance and efficiency. This arrangement offers maximum operating availability and minimizes operational risks, thereby increasing the profitability of the project,” says
Jerry Dubiansky, Vice President, Global Sales, Equipment & Systems business line, Metso.
Driving customer success with service in South Africa
In the heart of South Africa’s industrial area, 60 km south of Johannesburg, is Vereeniging, home to Metso South Africa’s service operations hub. The hub is conveniently located on the same premises as part of Metso’s manufacturing and distribution center.
The South African service operations hub consists of a comprehensive repair facility for Metso products, a Life Cycle Services department and a base for field service.
Old crusher repaired to as good as new
At Metso’s repair facility, crushers and screens that have come to the end of their first economic life can be repaired to as good as new. The complete range of Metso crushers, from the smallest Symons to the brand new MPs, up to the 54-75 gyratory, can be handled. The department has 12 employees.
The emphasis at the repair facility is on quality management of each component by our highly experienced repairs managers,
Dave Newman and
Joppie Ferreira. Assembly is carried out by Metso’s manufacturing assembly bay and tested before going back to the customer.
Vibrating equipment was recently added to this department’s repertoire of products to repair.
Life Cycle Services with seven mill crews
Life Cycle Services (LCS) mainly consist of the seven mill relining crews based in Rustenburg and Phalaborwa and the LCS service technicians based in Vereeniging.
The team from Vereeniging delivers inspection and repair services on a repeat basis, ensuring high availability of the Metso equipment for the customers that have signed a maintenance agreement with Metso.
The LCS service technician team headed by
Walter Somane, who started at Metso as an apprentice many years ago, consists of eleven employees.
The field service department operates under the leadership of
Wayne Steyn, who is highly respected for his practical knowledge
of crushers, among other things.
The team consists of 21 employees, each of whom constantly strives to improve their capability to service Metso’s crushing, vibrating equipment, grinding, process equipment and bulk material handling products.
