Name of the Project
Kwastina brick factory.

Location
Adjacent to Corobrik’s Driefontein factory in Gauteng, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
Corobrik.

Project Description
The factory is part of a wider capital investment programme to upgrade and expand the company’s manufacturing facilities in South Africa.

The new factory will produce 100-million bricks a year and double the capacity of the existing Driefontein facility using one-third of the energy at a much higher quality, with more flexibility to produce bricks of different sizes.

The greenfield project includes a new shaping plant, a new fully automatic wet side, a setting plant for direct setting, two tunnel dryers and two tunnel kilns, as well as a new unloading and packaging plant for dispatch packs without pallets.

The new operation will not produce any waste. Once the new facility is operational, the redundant 30-year-old facility will be shut down and demolished.

Potential Job Creation
About 1 000 jobs were created during the construction of Driefontein, with a further 60 permanent positions to be created as the factory comes on stream. 

Thirty members of the local community have been trained and employed to lay bricks during construction, providing them with a marketable skill going forward. 

Capital Expenditure
The project will cost an estimated R800-million to implement.

Planned Start/End Date
Construction of the project started in 2019. Full production started at the end of March 2022.

Latest Developments
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Corobrik CEO Nick Booth officially unveiled the company’s new brick factory on May 4.

During the unveiling, Booth described the factory as the most technologically advanced and environment-friendly brick manufacturing plant in Africa.

Corobrik plans to have at least 26% of the factory’s energy needs met by renewable-energy sources and there are also plans to reduce gas emissions from the kilns by at least two-thirds.

The high-tech facility is fully automated, from mixing the raw materials to the end-product.

It has the capacity to produce 100-million bricks a year, enabling it to meet larger-volume orders.

This enhanced capacity will enable Corobrik to strengthen its exports to neighbouring countries and, with the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, double the company’s export volumes.

Pioneering for the South African market will, however, be Kwastina's ability to be flexible enough to produce small quantities of bespoke products for the architectural market.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Keller Group (technology).

Contact Details for Project Information
Corobrik, tel +27 11 871 8600, fax +27 11 871 8610/11 or email +27 11 871 8815 or email info@corobrik.co.za.