Dapilon, Boke, Guinea, July 12th, 2019 – Today marks an extraordinary day for Winning International Group-led SMB-Winning Consortium: two countries’ presidents visited us on the same day! At 14:40 today, President of the Republic of Guinea, His Excellency Alpha Conde, and President of the Republic of Liberia, His Excellency George Weah, arrived to visit SMB-Winning Consortium’s Port of Dapilon. This fully reflected the President and the Guinean government’s solicitude and support for the SMB-Winning Consortium’s project!
His Excellency George Weah, President of the Republic of Liberia (First from left), together with His Excellency Alpha Conde, President of the Republic of Guinea (Second from left) reviewing the Ceremonial Guard.
Ceremonial Guard playing the national anthem of the two countries to welcome the visit of His Excellency George Weah, President of the Republic of Liberia.
After disembarking the plane, the two presidents reviewed the Ceremonial Guard and met with Boke’s local officials and politicians. Afterwards, the two presidents’ visit of Port of Dapilon’s bauxite yard, barge-loading dock, WASE workshop, and floating dock was accompanied by SMB-Winning Consortium’s on-site executives. The two presidents were deeply impressed by SMB-Winning Consortium’s highly efficient logistics capabilities and advanced technical expertise.
SMB-Winning Consortium’s executives welcoming the President of Guinea and the President of Liberia.
The SMB-Winning Consortium’s on-site executives that accompanied the two presidents included Mr. Wu Qiong, General Site Coordinator of SMB-Winning Consortium, Mr. Frederic Bouzigues, SMB’s General Manager, Mdm. Hawa Berry, Senior Human Resources Manager and Mr. Yuan Guoliang, General Manager of WAP.
Port of Dapilon is an important component for the Port of Boke in Guinea, the latter currently being the most diversified multi-purpose integrated port with the largest cargo throughput in the Guinea and Boke region. The main export of the Port of Dapilon is bauxite, with the destination being Yantai Port in Shandong, China. Since its inception in 2015, SMB-Winning Consortium has exported over hundreds of millions of tons of bauxite from this port to China. Ensuring the safety of China’s bauxite supply while at the same time creating a two-way logistics channel, SMB-Winning Consortium uses the Port of Boke to transport containers and cargo to Guinea. These include vital materials such as engineering equipment and construction materials for infrastructure building in Guinea. This made the Port of Boke an important logistics, resources, and trading hub for the Chinese “One Belt, One Road” initiative in West Africa.
His Excellency, President of the Republic of Guinea (Third from left), being personally involved in the ground-breaking ceremony of the Dapilon-Santou Railway on 29th March this year.
It is worth mentioning that, as of the moment, SMB-Winning Consortium is making full efforts in constructing a dedicated railway from Port of Dapilon to Santou Mine (Dapilon-Santou Railway). This railway is located within the borders of Boke and Kindia in northwestern Guinea. Stretching for a total length of roughly 135km, the entirety of the railway will feature 23 bridges, two tunnels, and six depots. The Dapilon-Santou Railway is a crucial support for the SMB-Winning Consortium’s mineral extraction and recovery operation in the Santou mining zone, as well as a vital infrastructure facility that will serve bauxite enterprises such as CHICO along its route. During its early and near-future phases, the railway will be primarily tasked with the transportation of mineral rocks from the mining zone to the Consortium’s Boké Port No. 2 (Port of Dapilon). Farther down the road, there are hopes to open its services to third parties and to integrate into the Guinean national railway transport network to better serve the country’s socio-economic development.
Under the efforts of the SMB-Winning Consortium, Guinea has risen as the biggest bauxite exporting-nation in the world, and the construction of this railway will further reinforce Guinea’s advantageous status in the global bauxite market. The SMB-Winning Consortium will also leverage on the railway to drive progress in its alumina factory and agricultural projects in order to create an industrial and agricultural economic corridor in the Boké region.
The Guinean SMB-Winning Consortium, which consists of three nations and four parties, has answered to the call of the creation of a “community of common destiny,” proactively participates in the Chinese “One Belt, One Road” initiative, endeavors to position the Guinean railway as a key segment and crucial node in the future international economic and trade systems, and strives to uphold the principles of safety, high quality, high efficiency and low cost in the design and construction of the Dapilon-Santou Railway, so that it may become a landmark project that will stimulate the conception and advancements of other railways in West Africa.
About WASE Shipyard
Winning Africa Shipyard and Engineering, or WASE, is part of Singapore’s Winning International Group. Registered in Guinea, the shipyard is located within the Port of Boke-Dapilon. It can accommodate vessels of up to 116m in length and up to 10,000 DWT. It can provide services including general ship repairs, repairs to propeller shaft system, ship surface sandblasting, painting, gantry crane and machine repair.
WINNING DREAMDOCK is a newly constructed floating dock with full capabilities which include building and repair of floating cranes, tugboats, barges, fishing boats, and other seagoing vessels. It measures at 116m in length, 43m in width and has a lifting capacity of 5, 000 tons. It is the first modern floating dock custom-made by Winning International Group for its projects in Africa. As the first modern floating dock in the West African region, WINNING DREAMDOCK signals the region’s capabilities in shipbuilding and ship repair and is an epochal symbol.
WASE’s integrated workshop is a fully equipped workshop and has a fabrication yard with capabilities for steelworks and propeller shaft system repair. The workshop has plasma cutting machines, hydraulic presses, hydraulic shearing machines, rolling machine, and steel fabrication equipment. It has 10 units of 1.25m length large-scale lathes, grinders, drills, elbow bending machines, and other repair equipment. The workshop also carries out motor winding repair and chemical cleaning.
About SMB-Winning Consortium
The SMB-Winning Consortium is comprised of Singapore’s Winning International Group, China Hongqiao Group under Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group, Guinea’s UMS and China’s Yantai Port Group. In November 2015, the SMB-Winning Consortium successfully utilized maritime transshipment platform to load up Capesize bulk carriers, which significantly reduced logistics and shipping costs. The first vessel of Guinean bauxite was safely delivered to the Port of Yantai in China, signifying a historic and momentous breakthrough. The SMB-Winning Consortium partners with CHICO and French mining corporation Alliance Minière Responsable (AMR) in its mining operation, and at present, the SMB-Winning Consortium has become the largest exporter of bauxite in Guinea.
The success of the project’s operation has stimulated an increase in the Guinean GDP, strengthened Guinea’s foreign exchange balance, created nearly 10, 000 direct job openings and around 30, 000 to 50, 000 indirect employment opportunities in the country, and benefited more than 100, 000 Guinean families. In order to better carry out its corporate social responsibility, the SMB-Winning Consortium has invested a vast amount in communities in the mining zone, including the construction of rural roads, schools, vocational training centers, rural clinics, and wells, so as to improve the well-being of local folks.