The construction division of global steel producer ArcelorMittal on Thursday reported that it is considering investing into a continuous production plant in South Africa, to produce energy-efficient construction materials for the local market.

Speaking at an event hosted by the French Energy Forum, ArcelorMittal Construction (AMC) project manager, Thierry Poitel, told Engineering News Online a continuous production plant, if given the green light, could be operational in about 12 months.

Poitel said plans for the plant had been far advanced last year but the global economic downturn caused the company to halt its capital expenditure plans. However, with the upswing in the markets, plans for the production plant are being dusted off.  

AMC was currently importing polyurethane panels that are being used in a number of projects, including a R39-million primary school in Mamelodi, Pretoria, that was part of ArcelorMittal South Africa’s corporate social investment project. The panels could also be used for low-income housing construction, office buildings, as well as shopping centres. AMC was not part of ArcelorMittal South Africa but wholly-owned by the global ArcelorMittal Group.

A plant to meet the expected demand in the local market could require an investment of between €10-million and €20-million, Poitel indicated. He added that the insulated panels, which would include a ‘double skin’ panel, were specifically aimed at energy efficiency, and at reducing the weight of building materials. Construction time would also be significantly reduced, as the ready-made panels were easily assembled.

Furthermore, if given the go ahead for the plant, ArcelorMittal would provide technical training to constructors using the material, to ensure product satisfaction.

The insulated panel was only one of several energy efficiency products that ArcelorMittal was offering, and Poitel noted that the rest of the company’s offerings, including solar solutions, would be available to the South African market. Poitel added that although some components might always be imported from Europe, the majority of its product could be locally manufactured if the planned investments materialised.

Poitel noted that, not only could ArcelorMittal’s products offer energy-efficient solutions, a continuous production plant, such as the one envisaged, would itself be very energy-efficient.

He told Engineering News Online that if given the go-ahead, a proposed South African plant would only use 5 m³/y of water to produce between one-million m² and two-million m² of insulated panels, using around 30 000 t of steel which could be supplied by ArcelorMittal South Africa’s steel mills. The plant would also offer decreased waste generation and energy consumption, reducing its consumption from 3 MW to 0,7 MW.   

To reduce its greenhouse gases, the plant would also immediately implement n-Pentane as a blowing agent.

Poitel noted that the building industry currently supplied between 5% and 15% of worldwide employment, and accounted for the same amount of global economic output.  

However, the built environment was also responsible for around 40% of global energy consumption, 40% of carbon dioxide emissions, 30% of natural resource consumption, 30% of waste generation, and a further 20% of global water consumption.

For this reason, he noted, that constructers had to consider using new materials, rather than the standardised brick and mortar, for construction purposes. Steel was one of those materials as it is infinitely recyclable. ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest scrap recycler, reuses about 1,2 t of steel a second, while 40% of the steel industry’s ferrous resources are recycled steel.