Govt looks to expand asphalt production

Jan 22, 2017 News

– holds discussions with German company
A technical team being led by the Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson is currently

Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman

engaging a German asphalt-producing company, as the Administration looks for ways to expand its capacity to produce asphaltic concrete.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Natural Resource, Raphael Trotman, during the most recent Post-Cabinet Press Briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Trotman said that Cabinet had given its no objection for the team of officials to visit the engineering plants of Benninghoven GmbH and Company in Frankfurt, Germany, from January 17-25.
The Benninghoven GmbH and Company is a member company of the Wirtgen Group, which manufactures road equipment including granulators and asphalt plants, both mobile and stationary.
The company, according to the Resources Minister, collaborates with the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) and produces approximately 70 percent of Guyana’s asphalt concrete.
The German company also includes the five well-known brands, Wirtgen, Vögele, Hamm, Kleemann and Benninghoven, with their headquarters in Germany and production sites in Brazil, India and China.
Guyanese have been complaining for the years about the sloth in contractors carrying out projects in many parts of the country. The cries of contractors would often be directed to the lack, or insufficient supply of

DHBC’s Mobile Asphalt Plant.

asphalt and bitumen.
Trotman said that the aim is to ensure that the material produced by the plant, meets stakeholders’ demands.
DHBC’s asphalt plant produced a total of 42,471.06 tonnes of asphalt with $930,206,045 worth of the material being sold to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and $588,952,635 from other sales, taking the total sale of asphalt to $1,519,158,680 for 2016.
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure through the Transport and Harbours Department is responsible for the management and operation of the DHBC asphalt plant.