Employees must be intrigued by all the civil construction activities currently underway on the Edendale and Camps Drift sites. Many are wondering how the project is progressing and if implementation activities are on schedule.
It is pleasing to state that all major activities of the project are progressing according to the planned master schedule. Some of these milestones include items concerning the following:
- Placing of orders on equipment
- Appointing of contractors and vendors
- Commencing civil / building works
- Relocation and re- establishment of equipment and facilities.
At this stage of implementation, all major equipment and civil contracts across all the sub areas of the project are now awarded and include:
Twin Roll Casters (TRC)
- 2 Melting furnaces and 2 Holding furnaces from Solios in UK.
- 2 continuous twin roll casting machines from Zhouchen in China.
- Metal treatment equipment and Edge miller from Novelis PAE.
- Civil earthworks, piling and buildings of approximately 5000 sq.metres being constructed next to Campsdrift Remelt.
Foil Plant
- Appointed Achenbach of Germany, to provide the design engineering and some equipment to refurbish two used Foil Mills, namely FM8 and FM9.
- Awarded a turnkey contract to Kampf of Germany to provide two new Foil Separators , namely SP11 and SP12.
- Ordered four new Foil Annealers and one Foilstock furnace from ETS (South Africa).
- Awarded various contracts to earthworks, piling and civil construction companies for the building of the new Foil Finishing and Foil Rolling buildings, which together will cover approximately 10 000 sq. meter of floor space.
Plate Plant
- Ordered a new Plate Stretcher from Treuninger of Austria.
- Ordered a new plate Ageing Furnace from ETS (South Africa).
- Awarded contracts to extend the buildings by approximately 500 sq. metres.
S4 Mill Upgrade
- Appointed Parkegate Engineering from UK to provide engineering design for equipment to enable S4 to roll large coil diameters of up to 2100mm.
H2 Mill Upgrade
- Appointed Achenbach from Germany to provide design and equipment to enable this mill to roll a wider range of plate products up to 60mm thick.
As site space at Camps Drift is unrestricted, the TRC and Plate projects are considered to be "Greenfield site" projects. This is because construction constraints such as site preparation, ease of construction, and disruption to the ongoing business operations is considered to be much less than implementing a similar project on the Edendale site, which is termed a "brown field site".
As we know, unused space on Edendale site is scarce and hence a number of significant demolishment and relocation activities are needed to create much needed space for the new Foil mill project requirements. Of note, is the recent demolishment of the Stores building to make way for the new Foil finishing buildings. Further, the existing Foil Finished Goods and Despatch buildings will soon be demolished and a new building and foundations constructed for FM8 and FM 9 foil mills and a coil storage bay.
Currently, a new Hulamin Extrusions (HE) dispatch facility is being erected between the HE plant and the main office buildings.
We are very pleased to have appointed a number of competent vendors and contractors to assist the project team with the numerous tasks across all areas. Some of the major companies include:
- Kantey and Templer for civil and mechanical engineering design, plus civil construction management.
- Kentz Automation and Drives for electrical engineering design and construction management.
- Group 5 / WBHO joint venture for the major civil construction works.
- ESOR for the civil piling works.
- DDT for building platforms and other earthworks.
"The Hulamin team have responded exceptionally well to the demands of the project and are rapidly moving into execution phase," says Doug Timmerman Operations Director and Project Sponsor. Doug explains that the interface with the "owners teams" is critically important to a successful start up.
These structures are in place and progressing well. "Business description must be kept to a minimum and this can be achieved if we all work together," he concludes.
