Made of steel

Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium Limited (Evraz Highveld) has been making its mark on the South African economy as the country’s leading steel and vanadium slag producer, and despite working in a difficult global economic environment the company has continued to embrace a range of sustainable and social initiatives.

When Evraz Highveld—formerly known as Highveld Steel and Vanadim Corporation Limited—came on the market in 2007, Evraz snapped up the entity, marking an exciting new chapter in South African steel history.

Evraz purchased 87 per cent of the firm that year and soon changed its name to Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium Limited as part of a brief rebranding exercise. Evraz Highveld director and chief executive officer Michael Dennis Garcia says that the company changed its colours from the old blue “to orange, yellow and red to symbolise the steel making process.”

As South Africa’s leading producer of flat products, structural steel and vanadium slag, the company has been keeping a close eye on global market trends to ensure its production remains in demand.

“Demand has been stable-to-soft, and considering the concern that Europe and America could enter a full recession, growth in South Africa has not been that impressive, thereby leaving the general outlook for both vanadium and steel guarded,” says Garcia.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the global markets, Evraz Highveld’s most recent set of results, released in August, saw the steel producer swinging back to profitability following tougher times in 2010.

“This reflected the moderate strengthening of the domestic steel market, both in terms of pricing and demand, and reflected better operations within the company,” Garcia remarks.

“In South Africa there is a higher growth rate than in most Western countries, but it’s still not as robust as in the BRIC countries.

 “We sit somewhere in the middle and while we expect prospective growth it won’t be the same as you will see in India, China and Brazil.”

Supporting social endeavours

As a committed part of the local economy, Evraz Highveld is giving back to the community through a series of forums and educational programmes. One such endeavour is providing assistance and support to local schools and healthcare facilities through the Evraz Highveld eMalahleni Community Forum, which runs its social economic development projects.

The company also operates a skills development programme through a highly-regarded internal training centre, which trains its own employees as well as external applicants.

In regards to enterprise development, the team has identified a selection of suppliers from within its supply chain who it is looking to work with over the coming year as part of an enterprise development strategy, aimed at helping to set up businesses and long-term partnerships.

“The aim of this project is to promote enterprise development throughout our supply chain, which we will then further develop through a phased approach,” explains Garcia.

Evraz Highveld was also recently awarded a Level 5 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) accreditation.

“It is one of the key strategies that the South African government has in place to ensure that previously disadvantaged populations of South Africans who were not fully able to participate in the economy during the apartheid years, are able to participate,” explains Garcia.
 
“Each business that wants to conduct business with government is required to have a B-BBEE rating,” he notes. “The higher your rating the more favourable your position is in terms of being able to compete for government tenders.

“It’s an advantage to us in the market place to have a strong rating; it affects not just our tenders but also the business opportunities of our customers,” he adds. 

Evraz Highveld is also focusing on its environmental position and has in place an environmental strategy that consists of three key components.

“We have a lot of initiatives in place to improve our environmental standing,” confirms Garcia. “These include full compliance with all environmental legislation, developing an environmental footprint that enables growth and meeting the conservation expectations of our stakeholders.”

Improving infrastructure and efficiency

Not content with supporting community initiatives and remaining ever mindful of its operating environment, Evraz Highveld is also examining different methods to greatly reduce its consumption of electrical energy.

“South Africa is in dire straight when it comes to electrical energy,” remarks Garcia. “The country has implemented a 25 per cent year-on-year electricity price increase and it is therefore becoming a big input cost for us and is putting our business at significant risk.

“Therefore, we are examining new reduction technologies in our iron-making process that will greatly reduce the electrical intensity of our steal making.”
As a result the company is opting to move forward with plans to install a cogeneration plant, and recently completed a pre-feasibility study on a facility that would allow it to create power to meet up to 50 per cent of its own electricity requirement.

“This would take us off of the electrical grid to a great extent and next year we will be undertaking an official feasibility study that will help us nail down the reduction technology we use,” explains Garcia, adding that the team hopes this project will come to fruition within the next three to four years.

“The Evraz Way”

According to Garcia, the steel producer has been employing what it terms “The Evraz Way” in order to improve efficiency across the business.  Its commitments in terms of social, environmental and energy efficient realms are clear, and this is the ethos that supports development across the board.

“We kicked off the programme earlier this year and we have several initiatives going on throughout the company where we have identified waste and redesigned our processes to greatly reduce wastage,” he explains.

“It is really about applying lean manufacturing principles and reducing all forms of waste across all business processes in both manufacturing and administrative processes.”

Following the lead of the global economic downturn, the company is looking to use the coming months to consolidate its business interests. With demand lower than capacity across South Africa’s steelmaking industries, Evraz Highveld has opted to take a measured, strategic approach in the coming months and years. Its conservative stance is refreshing, and in placing greater focus on infrastructural improvements, environmental commitments and social endeavours, it is also an exemplary enterprise when it comes to responsible business for the steelmaking sector.

www.highveldsteel.co.za

Add to: del.icio.us | Digg | NewsVine | Mixx | FaceBook | Twitter