New steel grades are continuously being developed and manufactured, especially higher strength steels that are thinner and lighter, to keep up with the constantly evolving nature of the automotive industry, says local steel, tube and pipe manufacturer Robor.
However, South Africa’s steel mills do not produce all the steel grades required by the local automotive sector as the volumes required are not large enough to warrant the development and manufacturing of the additional grades of steel, Robor Baldwins, a division of Robor, automotive and supply chain manager, Mariette Dunn tells Engineering News.
She acknowledges that Robor Baldwins is still a relatively new supplier of steel to the automotive industry but strategic plans are in place to grow this market.
Dunn says Robor Baldwins works closely with automotive component manufacturers to ensure high-quality steel at best possible prices across all steel grades.
She says the company is supplying several South African component manufacturers, which, in turn, supply the country’s original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs), adding that the automotive component industry in South Africa is a competitive one.
The industry faces many challenges such as labour unrest, rising labour costs and decreas-ing levels of productivity, and competitive prices for completed components, from low cost producing countries. These challenges pose a real threat to the sustainability of the component manufacturers and suppliers, she says.
“OEMs have to be globally price competitive and there are several OEMs competing for their portion of market share not only in South Africa but also worldwide,” she adds, highlighting security of supply as another challenege.
In February, Engineering News reported on the fire, in which steel producer ArcelorMittal (Mittal) South Africa experienced at its Vanderbijlpark facility, which caused disruptions to its steelmaking operations.
Mittal estimates that 361 000 t of liquid steel production was lost owing to the incident, which resulted in weeks of steel delivery backlogs.
“The Mittal fire posed significant challenges to Robor’s ability to complete customers’ orders on time,” laments Dunn.
She explains that irregular and unreliable supply result in higher stockholding to meet clients demand.
“This all adds to our overall operational costs,” Dunn emphasises.
Additional challenges include the shortage of skilled workers and the retention of these workers. Dunn stresses, though, that the lack of skilled workers is a challenge that affects all industries in South Africa.