ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) on Wednesday announced that its Vereeniging plant has reached 100 years of operation.
Steelmaking at the plant started with a 10 t furnace, which produced roughly 4 000 t of pig iron steel between 1913 and 1920.
AMSA stated that the Vereeniging plant played a pertinent role in the company’s overall growth strategy and in its ability to continue to contribute to local economic growth and job creation, adding that it was proud to have reached this milestone, considering the many challenges and obstacles that South Africa and the steel producer had faced over the past century.
“The fact that we are here today commemorating our 100-year anniversary bears testament to the fact that we are a strong and resilient company,” AMSA CEO Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita said.
The Vereeniging works is currently the country’s biggest supplier of speciality steel, seamless tube and forge products, with almost 500 000 t of product produced a year, of which some 32% of steel is distributed to offshore markets.
In 2010, the company spent R220-million on a dust extraction unit, which had contributed to a significant reduction in emissions in the region.
“Dust above the Vereeniging site has been significantly eliminated, with the dust capture rate from the melt shop activities improving by 45%. This is just one way of dealing with the various environmental challenges we face on a daily basis,” she added.
“In the long term, we will continue with our robust growth and retention strategy to develop positively as a company and we look forward to celebrating another 100 years of success for the Vereeniging plant,” Nyembezi-Heita concluded.
The Vereeniging plant marked its 100-year milestone with a celebration attended by government officials, other stakeholders and company employees on September 3.