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African market seen as key to local steel industry growth

PAOLO TRINCHERO The steel construction industry is ready to benefit from the employment opportunities and growth that will come with the National Development Plan

PAOLO TRINCHERO The steel construction industry is ready to benefit from the employment opportunities and growth that will come with the National Development Plan

Photo by Saisc

6th December 2013

  

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To spur the local steel industry to grow by at least 5% a year over the next 10 years, the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (Saisc) will increase its focus on improving relationships with its counterparts in other African countries.

Recently appointed Saisc CEO Paolo Trinchero says this will require the institute to be proactive in looking for opportunities in the relevant existing and emerging sectors in South Africa and the sub-Saharan region.

Emphasising a point already raised by former US Ambassador to South Africa Donald Gips, Trinchero says growing the African market will attract other foreign investors. Gips was reported to have said that rising prosperity in Africa will open new markets for goods and create jobs in both regions. Gips added that more and more people are of the opinion that the twenty-first century will be the African Century.

“Africa has the potential to be the ‘continent of the future’ and for this institute to do its job properly we will increasingly have to live up to our name; Saisc will ensure that we work together with our African – and especially sub-Saharan – colleagues to promote the skills and capabilities of the region,” emphasised Trinchero.
He says to reach its full potential, the region will have to combat unnecessarily importing goods and services that could be locally sourced with equal, or better, quality at equal or lower prices. “To this end, Saisc recently launched a campaign which expresses the real destruction of importing fabricated structural steel where there is no need to. The simple facts are that for every 1 000 t of structural steel imported 100 decent jobs are lost to ordinary South Africans and, given the ‘multiplier effect’, the negative economic consequences for the country are astronomical,” he explains.

On Trinchero’s to do list as he takes on his new job, is the protection of jobs as well as of businesses in this massive industry. The launch of Saisc subsidiary – the Power Line Association of Southern Africa (Polasa), responsible for the power line sector – was the motivation to ensure that goal is reached.

“Formal structures enable better lobbying, standards monitoring and competitiveness, and we believe that Polasa will help protect thousands of jobs in the industry, which are often lost to foreign companies whose skills are certainly no better than the local experts,” he says.

Trinchero, however, is clear that his belief in investing in and promoting local businesses should not be construed to mean that the institute will support local companies at any cost. “We don’t believe in hand-outs. Our industry must remain globally competitive and continue to produce excellence at competitive prices.

“In this regard, we have applied for funding to do a comprehensive benchmarking exercise with our international counterparts and, while I am convinced it will show that our industry is generally as good as it gets globally, the results should be interesting and helpful in assessing what needs to be done to maintain and improve our competitiveness in the future,” he says.

Trinchero says the steel construction indus-try is ready to benefit from the employment opportunities and growth that will come with the National Development Plan (NDP).
“Competitiveness and overall efficiency in our industry will be crucial if we are to play our part in the envisioned realisation of the NDP, which sets the goal of 5.9-million new jobs created in South Africa by 2020 and a further five-million by 2030.

“To achieve this, the NDP expects that 2.65-million of these jobs will be in the sectors that most affect our industry and we need to ensure that our industry gets – and is geared for – as large a slice as possible of this work by engaging with government to unlock the projects that will have the greatest positive impact on all players in our industry,” Trinchero says.

Energy Projects
According to Trinchero, among the most important areas for steel construction growth are the various components of the energy sector. “Energy in all its facets will be an important focus area for our industry. In the renewable-energy realm, substantial quantities of steel are being used in the current solar and wind energy roll-outs. Parastatal Eskom’s Medupi and Kusile power stations, despite their challenges, have shown that South African fabricators can build very large and complex operations. There is much talk of ‘Coal 3’, which, given the opportunity, will also enable South African engineers and contractors to show what they really can do.”

Trinchero adds that, while there has also been much talk of the development of nuclear power stations with many international players expressing their interest, oil and gas developments will possibly be the most sig- nificant game-changer for the steel construc-tion industry in the next five to ten years. “Our most important task will be to help ensure that as much as possible of the work on these developing projects is given to local companies that have proven to be competitive.”
On the question of construction technology, Trinchero says steel-framed multistorey build-ings, light steel frame building (LSFB) and steel bridges will play an important role in steel construction achieving the envisioned growth. “All are technologies of the future,” he says.

“Firstly, steel-framed multistorey buildings have been a focus of the institute for some time and 2014 should be a watershed year for new projects and developments. Secondly, while a good proportion of pedestrian bridges are being built in steel, there is much room for improvement insofar as road bridges are concerned. Somehow engineers have not quite grasped how much less disruption there is to traffic with steel bridges, which can be almost completely fabricated off-site and then erected very quickly. Imagine how much time, money and road rage could be saved and averted if the only delay one had on a highway expansion was a weekend to erect the steel bridge?”

“In terms of LSFB, the growth in South Africa of this construction method since the formation of Saisc subsidiary Southern African Light Steel Frame Building Association, or Sasfa, in 2006, has been nothing short of phenomenal. Blue-chip companies that have recently used this method for their buildings include McDonald’s, Deloitte, Audi and Delta Motors.”

He adds that LSFB is an ideal method in times like these when energy costs are high. Firstly, construction time is significantly faster, secondly, much less transport is required to get the materials to site and thirdly, over the lifetime of an LSF building, there are significant energy savings. “This is a method whose time has come in Southern Africa and we will continue to vigorously promote it,” Trinchero says.

Trinchero says it is important that Saisc plays a leading role in assisting its members with transformation. “We envisage creating employment or mentoring opportunities for young graduates to be exposed to the technology of our industry to prepare them for the future,” he says.

“I believe we have the passion, the people and world-class companies in our industry to realise our goals moving forward. We need to roll up our sleeves and put in the hard yards to do so. I encourage our members to work with us, to challenge us, keep us on our toes and to remember that in this industry it is not frowned upon to work hard, have fun and show a profit,” he concludes.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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