Steel Construction Vol 40 no 6 - International Steel Structures | Page 36

SAISC SUBSIDIARIES: ISF

ISF
2016
by Neels van Niekerk, Director ISF

www.isf.co.za

the continued increase in the African
marketplace to receive solutions rather
than product. The demand for ex-works
or FOB fabricated structures is decreasing.
The market for un-erected structures for
large projects is fiercely competed for by
Chinese and other Eastern fabricators and
on an increasing basis, also from the Middle
East and Europe. Our competitors tend
to become part of bidding consortiums
and do not wait for the award to main
contractors to commence their marketing
efforts.

The promising Mozambique coal market
has also not yet bounced back since the
Tete coal projects. The only major projects
in neighbouring states are in the LNG
industry of Mozambique and Tanzania.
The offshore floating plant of ENI will
first be constructed with onshore plants
to follow. We continue to witness the
increased activity of foreign structural steel
contractors in Africa. This is expected to
continue until the structural steel markets
in Western Europe and the Americas
recover.

The swing of mining clients away from
the budget and procurement EPCM model
continues. EPC lump sum turn-key and
various other forms of contracting are
becoming more in use. Owner project
management continues to be on the
increase.
Metal Building Systems (pre-engineered)
manufacturing is slowly gaining ground
with small but growing exports from South
Africa. The ISF will work closely with SAISC
in the coming year to further establish
girder and section manufacture, which also
forms the basis of MBS. Concepts such as
single sided non-continuous welding and
tapered sections need to be well defined
within the South African industry.

Members that shifted their focus to
smaller brownfield mining extensions,
warehousing, storage projects, etc. as
well as following modern shifts in these
markets, still maintain their export levels.
The majority of exports were destined for
countries within the Southern and Eastern
parts of Africa. We expect total structural
steel exports, excluding products not
produced by our members, to only drop
10% from the 2015 level.

ISF highlights for the past year include:
• The new additional oil and gas focus
of the ISF and members resulted in
exhibiting at the OTC Houston event,
engaging with Houston, Paris and
London based EPCMs and visiting the
LNG project sites in Mozambique. The
ISF was successful in introducing a
number of new suppliers to the EPCMs.

IN 2016 the ISF continued to promote
a change in the strategic focus of its
members. The most important shift is
Photo courtesy www.otcimages.com

BELOW: Visitors to the exhibition at the Offshore
Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas.

The global fabricated structural steel
market is still at its lowest level of this
century. New projects in our prime target
market, large new mining projects in
Africa, remain scarce and well competed
for. The market is not expected to show
any noticeable recovery for the next few
years. As long as commodity prices remain
suppressed, only the top new mining
prospects will succeed in attracting the
required funding for implementation. A
number of graphite mining projects in
Southern Africa are progressing well.

• The ISF and members visited a large
number of EPCMs and mining houses in
Perth and Brisbane.
• The ISF continued to interact with
the Government on various subjects
including the national export strategy,
implementation of the NDP, as well
as the steel industry in general. The
ISF CEO was also appointed to the
Governmental Steel Committee on steel
tariffs, etc.
• A major disappointment was the
cancelling by the dti of four out of five
of our scheduled missions and National
Pavilions to date. The destiny of the
sixth event i.e. PDAC Canada is still
uncertain.

34 Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 6 2016