COMPANY PROFILE
2014
AfriSam
0860 200 500 | www.afrisam.co.za
company profile
Behind the drive towards green construction Editorial: Tim Hands Production: Chris Bolderstone
A leading supplier of superior quality construction materials and technical solutions, AfriSam has, since 1934, committed to making possible growth on the African continent, as a company guided by its values of people, planet and performance.
Over AfriSam’s proud and trusted history, one which spans 80 years, the company has worked ceaselessly to become a wellrespected and admired brand. It has long been known as a pioneer in both retail support tools and in the field of composite cement, but alongside this, sits proudly as the largest producer of aggregate and the largest supplier of construction materials, by volume, in southern Africa. Among its core strengths is the company’s ability to adapt its services to match the needs of the individual client – be it catering for an architect, an engineer or a home builder, or indeed whether call centre support, product information or a delivery is required, AfriSam can be counted on both for
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service excellence and on-going support. Cultural heritage plays a particularly important role in AfriSam’s operations, with the company always seeking to fully integrate with the communities within which it conducts operations. For such a company as AfriSam, sustainability can manifest itself in a variety of ways. Always striving for a responsible and engaging approach with all stakeholders, continual efforts are also made to support the communities and employees in the areas where it has dealings, through ongoing upliftment initiatives. These are designed to improve the quality of life of employees, their families and the surrounding communities, and encompass such vital areas as education and
AfriSam
development, conservation and legacy projects. A serious skills shortage in the country led AfriSam to invest heavily in education, with the central aim of empowering people with the relevant skills to enable them to become selfreliant and, as a result reduce poverty in these areas as a whole. The legacy projects and crisis opportunities in which AfriSam has involvement, meanwhile, aim to address past challenges, while linking to government national programmes. Encompassing a variety of areas, including sudden disasters and health and safety matters, a good example of this area of its work is the HIV/AIDS pandemic, whereby special needs are spotted and the opportunity taken to give assistance where it is
needed. Not limited to promoting development, with one of AfriSam’s three key values being ‘Planet’, conservation projects also feature at the forefront of AfriSam’s and its stakeholders’ thoughts and operations. Passionate about its environment, much time and many resources are dedicated towards research on improving its products, working with the relevant communities and industry figures to help it to realise this positive impact. The cement industry is as a whole, given the nature of the business, responsible for around 5% of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere throughout the world. A major aspect of AfriSam’s sustainability efforts is therefore ensuring the
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company profile
REFRATECHNIK Head Office:
Crocker Road, Wadeville Ext 4, PO Box 14676 Wadeville 1422, South Africa Phone +27 (11) 902 6930 Fax +27 (11) 902 5749
KZN Office:
Quality Street, Jacobs, Durban PO Box 13256 Jacobs 4026, South Africa Phone +27 (31) 461 4383 Fax +27 (31) 461 2864
minimisation of its emission of these harmful gases, helped hugely by the development of its Eco Building Cement. The result of AfriSam’s characteristic ongoing research, this is a product that has a carbon footprint of 453g/kg, almost half of the world average of 890g/kg. This cement is a specially blended high quality product, and suitable for use in all structural and building applications. It is made using a combination of Portland cement and mineral components which are less harmful to the environment. The introduction of this type of sustainable building material is one of the central aspects of AfriSam’s intensive research and development programme, with these advanced composite cements expected to play a central role in ensuring that the property industry meets the requirements for green buildings. It appears inevitable that sustainable design will, more and more in future projects, come to be not something merely to be considered, but rather a non-negotiable, central part of the building industry. As such, AfriSam and the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA) are behind the
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CPT Office: 12 Matthews Street, Atlantis Industria Dassenberg 7350, South Africa Phone +27 (21) 577 1901 Fax +27 (21) 577 1702
AfriSam-SAIA award for Sustainable Architecture, which have the dual aims of recognising outstanding achievements within this field of sustainable architecture, while simultaneously raising public awareness and debate on architectural issues. Striving to advance the influence of the local architectural community on the sustainability of the construction industry, the awards, first introduced in 2009, span two entry categories - one for built work and the other for works of social importance, including research – and entries are judged against four criteria: harmonisation, people upliftment, planet rejuvenation, and place-making performance. AfriSam’s CEO, Stephan Olivier, spoke of the awards’ importance as a starting point from which to provoke wider discussion on the issue “We recognise that the next decade is going to see major changes and innovations in architectural approaches to the built environment, largely driven by social development needs. Our sponsorship of these awards is our way of encouraging both established and emerging architects to focus on building in an authentically sustainable way, in both
AfriSam the consumer and commercial arenas.” Clearly, the opportunity to raise awareness on such a pressing issue is a vital one, and to be exploited as fully as the stature of the partners behind the awards allows, but for the entrants too it is a chance not only to showcase their talents, but also to receive personal and professional recognition from the industry. The awards’ dedicated website serves just this purpose, presenting to a far-reaching audience all those qualifying designs and, furthermore, displaying to the world the endless possibilities for sustainable architecture. Reon van der Wiel, whose Lebone II College design in Phokeng, North West, won the AfriSam-SAIA Award for Sustainable Architecture last year, is just one example of how South Africa’s foremost architects and sustainability thinkers have got behind the project. Van der Wiel’s states that, in order for South Africa to have a healthy environment for future generations, cities and buildings must be designed to consume less than they produce, and to have
a restorative relationship with their ecology. “Sustainability and education are joined at the hip, as they are both concerned with the future and future generations. For teaching to have lasting value, it needs to embody sustainability. By the end of this century, it is projected there will be four times more people living in Africa than there currently are. If this happens, and we want our grandchildren to live in a healthy world, we need to put these aspects into reality.”
“We wish to encourage both established and emerging architects to focus on building in an authentically sustainable way, in both the consumer and commercial arenas”
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10002136MH Unitrans 112x151mm.indd 1
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company profile
Cement
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Johannesburg architect Hugh Fraser also stresses 10002136MH Unitrans_Klipstone 112x151mm 04.indd 1 the importance of acting immediately, in order to make the necessary changes while it is still possible to have a significant positive impact. “In spite of the length of the built environment history, or perhaps because of, change comes very slowly; usually forced rather than by choice. The evolution of technology and proliferation of materials have allowed us to build buildings that are not always appropriate for the climate in which they are placed. While the Climate Change debate rages on, we should not be waiting to see the outcome, but rather committing to the small changes that are possible while we still have a choice.” The idea that the way a building looks must be an inseparable consideration from the way in which it functions, and thus how it meets the social, cultural, economic and environmental needs of the people it serves, is a crucial one. Among South Africa’s leading sustainability thinkers is Gita Goven, who comments that: “The future worth having will not come from doing the same things and expecting a different outcome. We need to build collaborative and co-creative capacities to find simple, relevant,
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real, cost effective and harmonising solutions. We 2014/07/31 2:52 PM need to define what we want to sustain, why, for who’s benefit and how. We then need to examine and generate our commitment to what is worth doing.” Change of this kind must begin in the design phase, whereby sustainable or ‘green’ design methods combine to ensure that a structure complies with those all-important principles of social, economic and ecological sustainability – the objective here is to ensure that the building remains environmentally friendly for the duration of its lifetime. Innovative design in a whole range of areas, from energy efficiency, water conservation and reduced waste, through to lower waste emissions and less dependence on use of natural resources, can all help to achieve the environmental responsibilities of the construction industry as a whole. While arguably still in its infancy in South Africa with regards domestic dwelling construction, a noticeable shift has been triggered towards green construction in the corporate and commercial world. AfriSam predicts that demand for sustainable design will grow as a direct result
AfriSam of raising the awareness of local consumers as to the global trends of green construction, while local architectural researchers, presented with an opportunity to help the country realise the long term socio-economic and environmental benefits associated with sustainable construction, can invest in this drive and thus pioneer the green movement at the design stage.
“The construction of the second kiln will not only benefit Tanga Cement and AfriSam, but will also contribute to the economic development of Tanzania and the East African region.” Partly owned by AfriSam, with its 62.5% shareholding, Tanga Cement Company Limited (TCCL) plays an important role in the company’s African growth strategy. Tanzanian-listed TCCL recently began the $165-million construction of a second kiln for its Tanga plant, which is expected to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2015. AfriSam CEO Stephan Olivier remarks: “The construction of the kiln is in response to the consistently high demand for cement from the Tanzanian and surrounding markets. Until now, Tanga Cement has had to import clinker to meet this demand and the new kiln will enable the company to produce enough clinker to meet all its requirements and reduce imports significantly.” The kiln will increase Tanga Cement’s clinker capacity of 500,000 t/y by 600,000 t/y, more than doubling its current capacity, with the contractor having begun the geotechnical investigation for construction, approved in May. This is something of a significant milestone for the company, only the second kiln construction that AfriSam has undertaken, having constructed its first ever kiln for Tanga Cement back in 1985. Infrastructure improvements and housing needs in the East African market have stimulated rapid economic growth, resulting in a wealth of project opportunities for AfriSam, as Olivier points out: “The company has a significant competitive
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company profile advantage by being the first to add clinker capacity to this market. The construction of the second kiln will not only benefit Tanga Cement and AfriSam, but will also contribute to the economic development of Tanzania and the East African region.” A further aspect of its development policy, the opening of a third rail to road depot in the Eastern Cape, in Markman Industrial, Port Elizabeth, looks set to increase AfriSam’s market share in the province. The depot comes in addition to the company’s existing depots located in East London and Queenstown, and incorporates a 1000 ton bulk cement silo capacity and a 3600 tonbag holding capacity. Grant Neser‚ AfriSam sales and marketing executive, explained the decision to service the western area of the province via another fullyfledged rail to road depot. “Historically we’ve
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enjoyed a very strong presence in the eastern side of this province, supplying these areas from our Ulco plant in the Northern Cape via the two rail to road depots. This allows us to take advantage of the cost effective rail rates down to the depots, allowing AfriSam to focus on the last leg by road.” Implementing a depot in Port Elizabeth will allow AfriSam to offer the traditionally superior level of service associated with a cement supplier of choice, and as such gain a significant share of the market in the area. “This has traditionally been a market dominated by a single supplier and our arrival offers local customers more choice. We’re confident that we will compete favourably in this market with our quality products, a highly responsive sales team, skilled technical support team and reliable supply infrastructure,” explained Neser.
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AfriSam
MISSION
Your Partner in Rail Logistics
To be a world class profitable rail company, committed to service excellence, listening to and satisfying our stakeholder needs, and conducting business with respect and integrity.
Services ~ Rail Shunting & Operations ~ Rolling Stock Hire & Maintenance Proud supplier to ~ Rail Track Maintenance ~ Fourth Party Logistics (4 PL) Afrisam Cement ~ Rail Personnel Labour Broking & Training ~ Rail Safety Management and Consulting ~ Rail Logistic Solutions – Mining (Terminal Management) ~ Automotive Solutions Telephone: (0) 861 SAFLOG ( 723564 ) / +27 (11) 608 0247 http://www.saflog.co.za | info@saflog.co.za
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+44 (0) 1603 411569 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, 2 Ardney Rise Norwich, Norfolk NR3 3QH
www.industrysa.co.za