The capacity expansion of steel fabrication company Cosira Group's production facility in Vulcania, Brakpan, is on track to significantly streamline the company's manufacturing process and improve production, reports the company.

Cosira Group MD John da Silva says that the expansion should be complete by the last quarter of 2008 and the facility can be ramped up to full production.

"During 2007, the company came to realise that there were many opportunities in the market that the company could capitalise on. However, the company could not take full advantage of the opportunities until we had invested in further facilities and capacity expansions. Cosira then initiated its capacity expansion programme, which will improve the steel production capability of Cosira Vulcan from 2 000 t/m to 5 300 t/m. The production facility will reach full production in August 2008, while the administration offices at Vulcania will be ready by November 2008," says Da Silva.

He reports that the Vulcania facility will be built on a surface area of 140 000 m2, of which 36 000 m2 is covered. The reason for this, adds Da Silva, is for future expansion at the facility as the production facility grows.

Da Silva says that the management of Cosira embarked on an international fact-finding mission to other global players in the steel fabrication industry, to see what equipment would best suit the Vulcania facility.

"It was decided that the Vulcania facility should have a fully automated computer numerically-controlled (CNC) bending production facility with fully automated mobile production units in the process line, in between the CNC bending facility and the artisans.

The mobile production units will combine a job shop and a production line processes for optimum efficiency. The steel sections will come off the CNC bending production line and be semi-assembled by the mobile production units before being handed over to the artisans to complete the process," says Da Silva.

He adds that that the Vulcania facility will also have a web-based customer interaction forum whereby the customer can track the progress of his or her order through real-time updates and live video facilities.

Da Silva says that the company has designed its own in-house computer software that allows the progress of a steel order to be tracked through all processes, from detailing to fabrication to corrosion to erection on site. This information is then uploaded on the Cosira website where a unique password will be provided to customers. These customers will then have the ability to keep up to date with the progress of the order.

The expansion of the production facility in Vulcania, has allowed the company to focus its other production facilities in Heriotdale on serving the company's specialised divisions.

The two production facilities in Heriotdale will serve Cosira Towers, the telecommunications division of the Cosira Group, specialising in the fabrication and erection of cellular phone towers, and Cosira Industrial and Mining Solutions (IMS), which focuses on solutions for the industrial and mining industry.

"One of the production facilities in Heriotdale will be retrofitted to purely do plate work. Once the expansion is completed the facility will have the capacity to process 750 t/m. This brings the combined total of the Vulcania facility and one of the facilities in Heriotdale to 6 050 t/m," says Da Silva.

The company is also harbouring African expansion plans. Da Silva reports that the company is executing and actively pursuing a number of projects in Africa.

"The company has executed a number of projects in Angola, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Subsequent to the completion of these projects, the Cosira Group set up satellite offices in these countries. It is the company's aim to develop these offices to transform them over time into full production facilities such as the ones here in South Africa," says Da Silva.

He adds that the company has identified the telecommunications, power generation, petrochemical, and mining industries as key growth areas in Africa.

Venturing beyond Africa, the Cosira Group completed a bridge building project in Cork, Ireland in October last year.

"The Cork Municipal Council had been looking at constructing a bridge between the towns of Killarney and Skibbereen for some time. The council came across the Desmond and Leah Tutu bridge that the Cosira Group completed in Johannesburg and contacted the company to manufacture and erect a bridge of similar specifications.

The bridge was manufactured in South Africa and was transported to Cork by ship; therefore a modular approach was taken. Once the bridge was in Ireland awaiting erection, other considerations had to be taken into account. The bridge is built over a floodplain, so a lot of planning had to go into the erection of the bridge during the rainy season," says Da Silva. He adds that the Cosira Group has entered the design of the bridge into a category in the upcoming Saisc Steel Awards.

Da Silva reports that the two biggest industry challenges facing the company in the industry are the current energy crisis and the current price of steel.

"The severity of the energy crisis came as a shock to industry. The biggest effect that the crisis had on the Cosira Group was on forward planning," says Da Silva. He adds that once the company achieved some level of internal stability after the crisis, it wanted to consolidate two main areas that were affected by the crisis.

The first of these areas being self-sufficiency. Through Cosira IMS, the company was able to acquire large generator sets from power generation companies in Mexico. These generator sets are currently being delivered and will be fully installed by the end of August this year. "The second area that Cosira wanted to resolve was the impact that the crisis had on clients. Thankfully there have been no significant setbacks on any of the company's projects," says Da Silva.

The current price of steel and its fluctuations are also taking their toll on the company. Da Silva reports that the price of steel from one of the main suppliers of steel in South Africa has increased by 85% since a similar period in 2007. He adds that this makes it difficult to quote the price of a project to a client because the steel price has been experiencing monthly increases. It also makes quoting a price on export projects a challenge.

"In order to curtail this, the Cosira Group has had to change its pricing structure whereby the company calculates all possible costs, with increases, and quotes the revised price to customers, using applicable industry indices" concludes Da Silva.


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