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Building Progress www.acwapower.com
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he construction industry has certainly seen some challenges in the past ten years. Since ReMaCon first began operating in 2004, the company has experienced first-hand the effects of serious labour and unemployment issues, as well as the interruptions caused by power outages that put numerous plants out of operation. ReMaCon appears to be successfully navigating these difficulties, and has remained one of the leading manufacturers of pre-cast concrete retaining blocks throughout. “When I started the company, we didn’t have the money to invest in one of these fully mechanised sort of facilities. So instead we started with a very labourintensive plant, which does benefit us in many ways - the government gives you grants for all sorts of things when you 1
As a leading manufacturer and distributor of precast concrete retaining blocksin the Gauteng province mostly, ReMaCon has been committed to accelerating the growth of urban infrastructure across South Africa for more than a decade. Owner Silvio Ferraris tells us about the company, the industry, and the effects of the rolling blackouts on the concrete subsector.
invest in manufacturing equipment and the employment of more people,” explains Ferraris. “Things have now changed, almost to a disadvantage from the labour intensive perspective, mainly because we’ve had so many strikes over the years. Strikes in the mining industry, strikes in the steel industry - everybody wants to go on strike because everybody wants higher wages, and the effect that has is that many factories are tending to move towards mechanisation. So one wants to reduce one’s reliance on labour because it’s on strike so often. And you know, that’s a problem,” he continues. “We all understand that they want more money, but at the same time, we also now have a 25% unemployment rate amongst mainly poorer people.”
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Another change ReMaCon has faced over the past few years is changes in safety standards within the construction industry. Ferraris explains that South African’s safety standards are not necessarily applied so vigorously as they would be in the UK, Europe or America. “It allowed a little bit of flexibility, because you could apply things with a little more ease and you didn’t have to spend a fortune to try and get things approved. But that’s changing now, because many of our standards are being taken from, for example, the UK standards and the European standards.” Retaining wall blocks are very popular in the South African construction industry due to the fact that they are more economical to manufacture and install than conventional reinforced concrete walls. 2
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However, there are inherent risks associated with their installation, which makes it particularly important for manufacturers to carry these safety standards. ReMaCon hold the SABS mark standard, and is a member of the Concrete Manufacturers Association. “You’ve got to have the standard, because otherwise you can’t insure your product, and you can’t insure your supply to remain within the Consumer Protection Act legislation,” explains Ferraris. “I carry the standard because it means that engineers and end users are comfortable using our products, and many manufacturers don’t have the standard — they claim to supply products made to the standard, but they don’t actually have the mark certificate for it.” While adhering to safety standards is no trouble for ReMaCon, the company is experiencing difficulties with factors out of its control — primarily, the national power shortage. Eskom, South Africa’s stateowned electricity utility, has been struggling for some time now to provide enough power for the nation’s 50 million people. Last year, Eskom scheduled a number of blackouts to avoid more serious power cuts in the country. The first of this year’s rolling blackouts arrived earlier this month. “We weren’t hit that dramatically last year, but I believe, come February, we’re going to be seriously affected. Eskom has got a problem,” says Ferraris. “They try not to flip industrial areas. The mines have been asked to reduce their power consumption, as have the huge smelter plants — many of the huge consumers of electricity have been asked to reduce it.” It has been reported that South Africa uses approximately 8% less power than it did in 5
2008, but the blackouts continue. “Everybody’s become more efficient, with the kind of lights we use and all sorts of energy saving strategies, but in spite of that, we still have rolling blackouts because the new power stations have not come online yet and the old power stations have lacked the necessary maintenance. And they’ve confirmed there will be rolling more blackouts, so we know we’ll be affected,” he continues. “When we had the blackouts in 2008, they seldom cut off the industrial areas. So back then, occasionally there’d be a problem and we’d lose half the day. But actually, this year’s going to be worse.” The solution favoured by ReMaCon is to acquire a generator. While this would minimise the loss of productivity during the blackouts, it doesn’t come without a cost. “We could have standby generators, but we’d have these for the next six to twelve months perhaps, and then the new power stations come online and we’d have gone and spent a fortune on a generator that’s going to stand idle, however that may not be the case and we could be experiencing these problems longer than that”, says Ferraris. Despite these setbacks, 2015 is set to be an exciting and diverse year for ReMaCon. “First of all, I’m looking for any special application precast concrete products that will diversify my business. I started supplying new products last year already,” says Ferraris, referring to a new type of modular free standing concrete wall, branded YFEL due to its resemblance to the Eiffel Tower, used for the separation of any dry bulk products, and for high security applications with the “anti-climb”YFEL.
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“We’ve specified on a number of big orders. It’s a full engineered product made from concrete, but it’s not necessarily used by the construction industry. It’s used for applications in the agricultural industry, ports, waste recycling, in mines, airport safety and to protect electrical installations, for example. ‘‘Specialised” concrete products seem to be ReMaCon’s focus for the next year, with Ferraris on the lookout for new products to further diversify the company. “Self-compacting concrete technology means that you can have steel moulds in very intricate shapes. In the past, when they used conventional materials, there’d always be a problem but more modern concrete technology has been developed which allows for greater diversity and high concrete strengths. I am really strategising to go into differentiated products with special applications so we can grow further.”
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