Steel Construction Vol 40 No 4 - Metal Cladding and Light Steel Frame | Page 30

SAISC PROFILE
slump plaguing the industry, companies
have to consider investing in CNC
equipment. Efficiency and productivity is
what makes a successful fabricator and this
cannot be achieved by working “the old
fashion way”.

ABOVE AND BELOW: FICEP Headquarters in
Gazzada, Italy.

Retecon and Ficep
Retecon began representing Ficep in 1991
and soon after that first machine was sold,
A13.34NT angle processing machine. This
machine is still in operation, however not at
its original owner.
Ficep prides its self on the range of angle
line processing machines offered, which
happen to be the preferred machine for
the tower manufacturing industry in South
Africa. We have large volume lattice tower
manufactures, who invested highly on
the dependability and reliability of these
machines.
Here we are 25 years on and with about
150 traceable Ficep machines installed
throughout South Africa and Retecon
continues working hard with Ficep to
supply our local industry with equipment
to all facets of the structural steel industry.
My two cents on the future of
structural steel industry
With the current state of our structural
steel manufacturing industry, it is clear that
automation of manufacturing process is
becoming a must for the survival of this
industry in South Africa.
More and more I hear all kinds of reasons
from small to medium fabricators why they
cannot invest in CNC equipment.“Is too
expensive”,“I don’t have the work to pay
the machine”,“it will take many years to
pay off the machine” and so on.
The old aged question comes to mind:
“What came first, the chicken or the egg?”.
28 Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 4 2016

How can you expect to get the work if
you don’t have any technology in the shop
and are using old manual methods to cut,
drill and punch? The work is out there, it’s
scarce but it’s out there, companies are not
going to give work to fabricators that, when
they inspect their shops, find only a 40 year
old cropper and a radial arm drill in the
corner, which has seen better days.
All my, then small, customers that invested
in technology have work in their shops.
Sure that the volume of work slows down,
but it also pics up. When it does you need
the technology to be able to take on the
work. The pool of well-prepared fabricators
is small and clients are spoilt for choice of
who gets the job. In my opinion, the longer
fabricators hold back on investing in CNC
equipment the more difficult it’s going to
become for them to get work when it does
pick up.
We all know that the South African
structural industry is crossing tough times,
but if it’s going to survive the current

During my visit to Ficep factory in Italy I
saw equipment being manufactured to be
installed in African countries like Algeria,
Ethiopia and Kenya. It dawned on me that
our northern African neighbors have caught
on to automation of fabrication workshops.
South African fabricators need to take note
of the technologies that are available to
them in the market or our industry may
end up being overtaken!
The Retecon Group as it is known today
was established in 1969 by Burkhard
Herrmann supplying tooling to the South
African industry. At that time we were
known as Traconsa as an abbreviation of
TRAns-CONtinent SA. Here we are 47 years
later looking back at the goals we set and
achieved at the outset when we chose
the name Retecon as an abbreviation of
REliable TEchnical CONsultants.
Over the years we have gained vast
experience, expertise and success.
We look back to the period of transfer
from conventional machines to computer
numerically controlled (CNC) machines as
a challenging one.
It has tested us and our clients alike. Today
and in the future, we will have to reliably
demonstrate how to efficiently apply highly
advanced technologies and continuously
train our customers’ technical staff in the
most economical use thereof.
response space.