IHC Merwede and T-Rubber Extend Purchasing Agreement

IHC Merwede and T-Rubber have announced that they have strengthened their ongoing business relationship with an extension to the Purchasing Cooperation Agreement between the two companies.

The signing of this agreement for the supply of rubber hoses was arranged to coincide with the visit of a delegation from T-Rubber to Europe at the beginning of June for the Wodcon XX congress and exhibition in Brussels.

Govert Hamers, the President of IHC Merwede, and Ren Fan, the General Director of T-Rubber, acted on behalf of their respective companies and completed the formalities on Thursday 6 June.

The renewal is a clear sign of the commitment between both parties to continue developing their business in the dredging market and further expand into IHC Merwede’s other core markets of mining and offshore.

IHC Parts & Services, part of IHC Merwede, is the dredging industry’s leading OEM supplier of systems, components, parts and services for both new-build vessels and the after-sales market for existing vessels.

The business unit’s global commitment is to maintain a continuous innovation programme to develop the best dredging equipment in the world and its global commitment to keep these systems the best throughout their life cycles.

T-Rubber, which is based at Shenyang in The People’s Republic of China, started producing rubber in 1938.

It now provides a wide range of specialist rubber products to the aviation, railway and dredging industries with a worldwide distribution and support network.

In 2009, IHC Parts & Services extended its product portfolio with the introduction of rubber hoses for the dredging market.

These were purchased directly from T-Rubber and produced in China.

Since then, T-Rubber and IHC Parts & Services have worked together to continuously strengthen their cooperation by making a significant level of investment in new products, machines, testing equipment, software and knowledge.

As a result, the rubber hoses business has grown significantly for both parties.

IHC Parts & Services’ Managing Director, Pieter Punt, says: “The combined strength of IHC Parts & Services and T-Rubber has created a unique offering for the dredging market. This may be evidenced by consistent double-digit growth over the past few years, continuous innovation and quality products that are able to outperform the extremely demanding conditions that dredging operators sometimes have to face.

“The rubber hoses have an excellent fit with all of the other products and services that we offer to the market, and underline IHC Parts & Services’ position as a fully fledged supplier of key dredging components and systems. With this renewed purchasing agreement, we are entering a new phase of development and further expansion into such new markets as offshore, oil and gas, and deep-sea mining.”

[mappress]

Press Release, July 9, 2013