Swiss Machinery diesel expo targeting truck owners, miners
Chief Executive Officer of local company Swiss Machinery, Harold Beharry, has told Stabroek Business that tomorrow’s One Stop Diesel Expo being staged at the Georgetown Club represents a direct service to key areas of the Guyana economy since it targets equipment and machinery that is critical to the operations of important sectors.
The head of the local diesel engine company which deals with service, parts, supplies, procurement and shipping told this newspaper in an interview on Wednesday that he hoped the event would attract the attention and active participation of the mining sector given the volume of diesel-driven equipment employed in the industry.
Beharry said Swiss Machinery, which serves as the agent for 19 internationally recognized companies, will be seeking to “turn out” products and services that will contribute to the longevity of diesel-driven equipment deployed to work in challenging conditions. “What we are doing will target diesel engines and other components and in the process we are seeking to reduce the amount of down time and to maximize both production and returns for owners,” Beharry said.
Tomorrow’s expo will mark what Beharry hopes will be the inauguration of an annual event. He said that Swiss Machinery had invited persons familiar with the components and services, which the expo is offering, to work with participants and to demonstrate the products. He said that what the expo will be offering vehicle and equipment owners are “quality parts at factory prices” that are attended by warranties.
Among the products that will be turned out at tomorrow’s expo will be the SEPAR advanced fuel filtration system which, Beharry said is environmentally friendly and will provide “99% clean fuel.” The expo will also be turning out what Beharry described as a Clean Air Fleet Recycling System the functions to purify hydraulic fluid. Demonstration systems have been pasture land once controlled by the Reliance Cattle Association but which was subsequently placed under rice cultivation. He wants that to be returned to being pasture land. Ram himself has begun cultivating cash crops as well as permanent crops.
Feroze Mohammed lives in Anna Regina. He has been a rice farmer for over 50 years. He cultivates around 70 acres of paddy. He too subscribes to the view that the absence of the PetroCaribe arrangement has dealt the Essequibo rice industry a blow from which it will be difficult to recover. He is able to cover his production costs though his customary spending pattern has been affected. Mohammed is concerned about his family’s continuity in the industry. For the foreseeable future he says, “Rice is what I know.” That is not altogether true. He is also a cattle farmer set up for the various products and services.
According to Beharry, the event will seek to pay generous attention to sustaining the efficiency of excavators customarily deployed in the gold-mining industry. Tomorrow, the company will introduce a Seal Saver, which Beharry says will serve to protect cylinders from damage as well as seal locks, a metal stitching system designed to repair fractured engine components. and he laments the scarcity of grazing grounds. He too says that the challenges facing the rice industry give rise to an urgent search for viable economic alternatives. There are strategic advantages to having at least “one foot” in the cattle industry. “When rice falls short you can always sell a cow to help out with your daily expenses.”
President of the Essequibo Chamber of Commerce Deleep Singh takes a broader view of the challenges facing the region’s economy in the face of the decline of rice. “Business is slow. Many people are only buying essentials,” he noted It is a clinical and uncomplicated summary of a far more complex situation. But you get the message. Singh owns the WD Hotel and Restaurant at Charity. He says his hotel’s occupancy rate is hovering around 35 percent. Still, he continues to believe that rice will remain the mainstay of the Essequibo economy.