Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso railway to be refurbished

[John Ashworth]

Frank Timis invades Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso

[Mel Turner]

Conveniently glosses over the bankruptcy of African Minerals Limited in Sierra Leone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Timi%C8%99
This article is a tad optimistic

34 locos owned by a JV headed by Standard Bank, and insured by your state owned Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa SOC Ltd, have been stranded in Sierra Leone for over 2 years, due to the African Minerals insolvency

Grindrod Locomotives built 30 of these locos, and is a partner in the financing JV. Grindrod held a maintenance contract for these locos

[John Ashworth]

Interesting choice of word in the headline of the original article - "invades". It suggests that the author might not be overly impressed with Timis.

[Mel Turner]

John

All in all a strange article, the author seems confused and light on facts

I did a bit of digging, re the Bollore Group's Sitarail concession, as it was undoubtedly the cancellation of this loco lease contract between Bollore and Grindrod Locomotives, that pushed GL into voluntary liquidation. It was absurd to expect a board of beancounters to guide a loco manufacturer, hence the Bollore locos being plated with the specified weight, but in fact being at least a tonne per axle overweight. The Frogs were not impressed. Heads at Grindrod certainly rolled, I note that group CEO Alan Olivier has "resigned"

Sitarail holds the concession for rail in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, I did a quick skim through West African news sites
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/reuters ... grade.html
http://www.bollore-transport-logistics. ... arail.html
AS at 19 July the local press was saying that Bollore had both the concession and agreement to upgrade the line, no mention of our shyster mate Timis

This article from August 2016 mentions Pan African Minerals
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/af ... ilway.html
Contract to upgrade the line signed in 2014
http://www.africanreview.com/transport- ... ay-project

Bollore has signed a contract with GE to replace the Grindrod locos (now all back in Pretoria) that were returned by Camrail in Cameroon