Eritrea

Eritrea is a low-volume, high-care market. EMM ships to Massawa, with Assab serving traffic in the south, and the quantities are modest - this is a country of around three and a half million people with a deliberately self-reliant trade policy and tight control of foreign exchange. What that means in practice is that Eritrean buyers order infrequently and expect the machine to last. Ruggedness, mechanical simplicity and a generous spares package matter far more here than the newest control system.

What we are asked for

Agriculture and water come first: boreholes, submersible and surface pumps, drip and sprinkler irrigation, small dam and canal works equipment, and grain milling and threshing machinery. Fisheries at Massawa and along the Red Sea coast take ice plant, cold storage, freezing tunnels and handling gear. Mining at Bisha and Zara has generated demand for pumps, compressors, generators, conveyors and laboratory equipment. Beyond that it is largely general engineering - welding plant, lathes, drills, sheet-metal tools and workshop compressors for the fabrication trade in Asmara and Keren.

Conditions to design for

The coastal strip is among the hottest inhabited places anywhere, regularly above 40 C at Massawa with high humidity and salt-laden air, while Asmara sits at 2,300 m in a dry, cool highland climate. Those two environments need different machines, and we specify accordingly: tropicalised windings, upsized cooling, marine-grade coating and sealed enclosures for the coast, altitude derating for the plateau. Power is 50 Hz, 230 V single phase and 400 V across three phase.

Tell us whether the machine is for the coast or the highlands before anything else - on this route it changes the specification more than the capacity does.