Ohorongo cement has announced a three-year contract with contractors Basil Read to supply cement for the building of the St Helena Airport. Basil Read secured the contract in November last year.

The project is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British government. The airport project is valued at N$2.5 billion in total and construction over 48 months will include paved runways, a rock-fill, reinforced concrete culvert, a terminal and combined building, air-traffic control tower, a 14 km long airport road and all related logistics.

Johan Burger, the sales and logistics manager for Ohorongo Cement, said that the company is “very excited about supplying cement to this project and we are very happy that Basil Read afforded us this opportunity.” The island of St Helena is located about 1 900 km off the African coast and measuring only 16 km by 8 km, is considered one of the world’s most remote locations.

Back in 1952, Basil Read began as a small private concern. Driven by strong leadership and evolving long-term strategies, Basil Read now stands out as a JSE-listed blue chip company and is widely recognised as a formidable leader in South Africa’s competitive construction sector. Following a recent tour of the facility, Graham Temlett, GM of the Basil Read St Helena Airport Project, said that “of course the impressive operating modern plant, the high quality of the product reflected in the certification and specifications of Ohorongo Cement, and the necessary quality procedures and controls that are implemented during the manufacturing process, also impressed us, making the decision even easier.”

The cement will be exported in one-and-a-half-tonne bulk-bags packed into 20 foot containers, by means of a 3 000 tonne vessel, which will operate between St Helena and Walvis Bay port on a three week cycle. “The problem we had to overcome was that the island did not have a jetty for the vessel to berth,” said Temlett. “However, now that