Construction World March 2015

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PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

INDUSTRIAL PAINT SUPPLIER provides solutions for Africa

Global paint giant Beckers is turning its attention to developing a wide range of paint products especially for African conditions.

expertise spans far beyond coil coatings. Worldwide the company has also developed special coating technologies for trains, agri- cultural, construction, earthmoving equip- ment and even consumer devices such as cell phones. “These range from coatings in making tractors more durable and even providing attractive cladding that assists architects to build ‘greener’ structures and phone manufacturers to introduce trendy new phone designs. “However, in Africa our well established network has been geared mainly to service steel and aluminium mills in sub-Saharan, East and West African regions. Therefore, in order to expand our reach, we have recently also begun to mobilise our technical staff to work closely with key industrial manu- facturers and assist them to enhance their product offerings. African solutions “This has already led to us developing Beckry® Save cost effective coil coatings for roof sheeting in West Africa and now supply coatings for rolling stock (PRASA), corrosion resistant paints for Eskom’s new power stationsand a number of other major successes. It shows that our technically advanced coatings are far beyond the ordi- nary and can be developed for use in a wide range of industries. The only challenge that we face now is to familiarise industry with

The company intends working closely with all-manner of manu- facturing clients across the conti- nent, and to use its substantial

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research and development capabilities to produce paints that can enhance these manufacturers’ products. Whether designing coatings to protect earth-moving equipment in tropical Africa, or provide lower-cost coatings for roof sheets used in the devel- opment of low-cost housing in West Africa, the company is focused on finding the right solutions for specific applications. In South Africa Beckers is best known for its leadership in the provision of advanced coil coatings. These are used by the coun- try’s steel and aluminium mills to provide finishes for a variety of flat sheet products that are supplied to local manufacturers to make everyday goods such as roof sheets, appliances, automotiveand other products. Coil coatings According to Beckers Group managing director, Willem van Heerden, the company’s

Beckers Group managing director, Willem van Heerden.

our service offering and to introduce our specialised coatings to a far wider potential client base,” says Van Heerden. He adds that at present the company’s strategy is to work closely with engineers, specifiers and architects,etc., to develop solutions for their own specificrequire- ments. With assistance from the company’s global research and development centres and long-term development groups, the company is committed to work with these specialisedindustrial customers to develop new products and find solutions for manu- facturing dilemmas.

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BELOW LEFT: A typical coil coating operation. RIGHT: A number of high end projects have been undertaken using coil coating from Beckers Group.

CONSTRUCTION WORLD MARCH 2015