The African Business Journal: KAEFER

KAEFER
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admin on 16 June, 2010 01:34:00
 
“We are not easily recognizable, but we are there.” The tagline sums
up perfectly KAEFER, the world’s largest independent insulation company in
the world. KAEFER’s insulation solutions are in the factories, power
stations, football stadiums and drilling platforms all over the world, providing
safe and comfortable production for its clients.
KAEFER is a global company with a presence in 45 countries and over 15,000
people in its employ. KAEFER South Africa was established in 1976 and is now one
of the leading companies in the domestic insulation industry. With the head
office in Johannesburg and a branch in Durban, in South Africa, KAEFER’s
specialties extend beyond insulation to include complementary support services
like scaffolding erection, corrosion protection and acoustic engineering. The
company works closely with the petrol refining industry and the power generation
industry, and also does mineral processing work, concentration plants, steel
moulds and aluminum smelters.
Glen Barry, managing director of KAEFER SA, illustrates the extreme conditions
in which KAEFER works. “We install insulation systems to conserve energy
and assist with material processing and product development,” he says.
Certain processes require exact temperature control in order to properly
function, or to react. That could mean an insulation project for a refrigeration
plant or cryogenic productions. “Thanks to our insulation, cold storage
rooms and tanks stay as cold as they are supposed to be. Our cold insulation
even keeps gases liquid, at minus 163.”
In other projects, ranging from cruise ships to power plants, insulation is
required to keep heat in, and KAEFER provides solutions for those as well, with
capability of maintaining temperatures up to 800°C.
KAEFER and power generation
KAEFER has a long and vital history of working closely with the SA power
generation industry, having provided support and expertise on the
country’s most significant projects. KAEFER SA is currently the appointed
maintenance contractor for SA’s largest power generation projects, four
high-profile, coal-powered stations for State-owned Eskom. “KAEFER is
providing all the scaffolding and insulation services at the Tutuka, Majuba,
Kendall and Matimba sites,” says Barry.
The company is also the appointed sub-contractor to Alstom for another Eskom
project, the six-unit power Medupi power station. When completed, the power
station will have six boilers each powering an 800 MW turbine, producing 4800 MW
of power. This will be the largest dry-cooled coal fired power station in the
world. KAEFER will be providing the scaffolding services and are in the process
of building insulation packages, and Barry says the company is also planning on
being involved in the Kusile project as well.
KAEFER’s roster of clients chose the company for its exemplary safety
record, its ISO 18000 and 14001 certification (for safety and environmental
excellence, respectively) and its intimate knowledge of the pace of the
industries within which it works.
As such, KAEFER is providing a vital role in accelerating SA’s much needed
expansion and upgrade of the electricity infrastructure by contributing to what
the Department of Minerals and Energy describe as “a national response to
SA’s electricity shortage.” KAEFER, along with its partners, are
working diligently to prevent a reoccurrence of the 2008 power outages that led
to the loss of billions of Rand.
Knowing it will be on the world’s main stage for the 2010 FIFA World Cup,
SA has another incentive to keep electricity flowing, and KAEFER’s
complete insulation solutions will be a part of the games’ success. The
company was awarded a three-year contract to provide scaffolding services for
some of the stadiums because of their reputation for excellence in scaffolding.
The company earned this reputation in part due to their scaffolding training
centre in SA.
KARP
KAEFER AIDS relief program, or KARP, is a joint program between the corporate
head office in Germany and the local SA branch. Running since 2005, the program
endeavors to provide educational, emotional and medical support to employees or
their family members who have contracted HIV or AIDS. “We believe our
people our people are our greatest asset. It has a lasting effect on a company
when you lose skills. And we believe it is the right thing to do,” states
Barry.
The company believes it has had tremendous success with the counselling and
testing campaign hosted around the SA region. Ninety-six per cent of local
employees have attended and been tested at these sessions, helping to further
de-stigmatize the disease. For those who test positive, there is a comprehensive
treatment and care package offered called the case holding model (CHM) which
allows those employees to access a network or doctors.
With an presence in the community as broad as KAEFER’s, the company will
continue to progress SA’s many new developments in infrastructure and
society.