Housing in Southern Africa February 2015

20 / 40

February 2015
Paints, Coatings & Sealants
The company intends work-
ing closely with all-manner of
manufacturing clients across
the continent, and to use its sub-
stantial 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 providing lower-cost
coatings for roof sheets used in the
development 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 provi-
sion of advanced coil coatings. These
are used by the country’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
Global paint giant Beckers is turning its attention to developing awide
range of paint products especially for African conditions.
Industrial paint supplier targets Africa
sheets, appliances, automotive and
other products.
But, according to Beckers Group
Managing Director, Willem van
Heerden, the company’s expertise
spans far beyond coil coatings. World-
wide the company has also developed
special coating technologies for trains,
agricultural, construction, earthmov-
ing equipment and even consumer
devices such as cell phones.
“These range fromcoatings inmak-
ing tractors more durable to even pro-
viding attractive cladding that assists
architects to build greener structures
to phone manufacturers to introduce
trendy newdesigns. However, in Africa
our well established network has been
geared mainly to service steel and
aluminiummills in sub-Saharan, East
and West African regions. In order to
expand our reach, we have recently
also begun to mobilise our technical
staff to work closely with key indus-
trial manufacturers and assist them
to enhance their product offerings.”
“We have developed Beckry, a cost
effective coil coating for roof sheeting
inWest Africa and nowsupply coatings
for rolling stock (PRASA), as well as
corrosion resistant paints for Eskom’s
new power stations. This shows that
our technically advanced coatings can
be developed for use in awide range of
industries. The only challenge that we
face now is to familiarise industry with
our service offering and to introduce
our specialised coatings to awider po-
tential client base,” says van Heerden.
At present the company’s strat-
egy is to work closely with engineers,
specifiers and architects, to develop
solutions for their own specific re-
quirements. With assistance from
the company’s global research and
development centres and long-term
development groups, the company
is committed to working with these
specialised industrial customers to
develop new products and find solu-
tions for manufacturing dilemmas.
“We are constantly working with
our steel mill customers to develop
flat sheet products that will give them
an edge in the markets,” concludes
van Heerden.
Beckers is aworld leader in the sup-
ply of coil coatings and has developed
a variety of solutions to survive in the
toughest conditions. These include
corrosion, abrasion, scratch, UV resis-
tant varieties as well as advanced anti-
bacterial, self-cleaning and thermally
reflective coatings.
For further information contact
016 428 4011, email: willem.van-
or visit
■ Willem van Heerden