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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
FEBRUARY
2015
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MARKETPLACE
Lafarge South Africa, won in the
global ‘Capital Allocation’ cate-
gory – its Moregrove Quarry’s
“Innovative fines management
gives better returns” initiative, executed
under team leader and quarry manager,
Peter Willemse, was chosen as one of the
six worldwide winners out of 170 top project
submissions from 35 countries.
Says Ken MacLean, country CEO of
Lafarge South Africa: “Winning this Global
Award shows that commitment to the
success of our company, through hard work
and creative initiatives will be recognised
at the highest level. It means we have the
ability to compete against any other country
in the world.”
Moregrove Quarry’s award-winning
project addressed the problem of the high
fines content of its stone that was limiting
sales of asphalt sand. After an investigation
it was found that the quarry’s air separator
had the ability to remove much of the fine
sand particles. The asphalt sand’s quality
was improved and a profitable outlet for the
recovered fines in the manufacture of bricks,
blocks and other precast concrete products
was determined.
The project’s benefits were numerous:
• Successful reduction in fines -0,075 mm
from 16% to 10%.
• The fines are separated and can be
blended with another product
(-4,75 mm) to produce a blend which
is in high demand from a brick and
block precast producer.
• The improvement in fines quality was
cost effective.
• Low maintenance solution.
This proactive thinking resulted in R8-mil-
lion revenue per year and an increase in
asphalt sand sales.
The global winners were announced at a
Lafarge Awards Group ceremony in October
2014 during the Lafarge Group’s Country
CEO meeting in Sitges, Spain. The judges of
the award submissions praised the quality
of this year’s entries, saying they were high
impact, results driven programmes.
Lafarge South Africa's global winning team.
In November last year,
Lafarge South Africa, the local
presence of the international
Lafarge Group, paid tribute
to the company's six local
winning teams as well as
its global winning team in
recognition of their excellent
performance during the 2014
annual Global Lafarge Awards.
The programme was designed
to promote and transfer best
practices and processes within
the Lafarge Group.
The six winners of the final global
Lafarge Awards were:
• Category: Capital Allocation –
winning country: South Africa.
Initiative: ‘Innovative fines
management gives better
returns and has opened up a
new business opportunity’
• Category: Health & Safety – winning
country: Morocco. Initiative: ‘Aimed
to promote strong, committed H&S
leadership at all levels. Conducted
programmes that promoted
responsibility and accountability
among managers in the field.
Safety knowledge and risk analysis
skills were enhanced’
• Category: Cash flows and EBITDA –
winning country: France. Initiative:
‘Facing a declining and increasingly
competitive market, Lafarge
France did a total review of its
operation to reduce variable and
fixed costs, while also steering
cement price negotiations’
• Category: Managers Leadership –
winning country: India. ‘Initiative:
Implemented WAVE (Women Adding
Value & Excellence) to create a
more inclusive workplace. A variety
of programmes contributed to India
achieving a higher maturity index
and a greater sense of belonging
among female employees’
>
ment that, to a large degree, control the
ability of Eskom to actually release pro-
jects for construction and thus deliver on
its ‘Compact’.
“The bottom line,” says Whalley is that if
there is a substantial increase in jobs coming
on stream in the very near future, it is
unlikely that Eskom will build more than an
estimated 300 km of transmission lines in
the financial year ending 3t March 2015. This
represents only 24% of current construction
levels of 837 km and 13% of the 1 500 km per
annum aspired to in the TDP over the next
five years. This will be catastrophic for the
local power line industry,” he says.
He adds that as much as business is
dynamic, it requires a degree of certainty in
terms of its future ability to generate returns
on investments made. “The recent decline
in enquiries to market, compounded by the
lack of work currently available, has called
into question the reliability of Eskom’s TDP
as a forecasting tool for new build plans.
Industry investors and boards of directors
alike are sceptical and uncertain, resulting
in a reluctance to invest and an increased
appetite to exit the industry,” he says.
In closing
The economic development imperatives in
South Africa clearly demand a robust and
expanded transmission line grid to enable
the effective transport of electricity from the
point of generation to distribution.
“The need is paramount to ensure that
the learning curve that the industry and
Eskom have paid dearly for, is not lost due to
lack of roll out of new projects in the imme-
diate future.
It is imperative that the power line
industry, in collaboration with its key
customer Eskom and Government, find
effective ways to avoid job losses while
developing a strong and sustainable
industry capable of delivering on Eskom’s
requirements, and matching its aspirations
to support the SADC region and in turn
Africa,” Whalley concludes.