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BuildingProgressBuildingProgress

The construction industry has

certainly seen some challenges in

the past ten years. Since ReMaCon

first began operating in 2004, the company

has experienced first-hand the effects of

serious labour and unemployment issues,

as well as the interruptions caused by

power outages that put numerous plants

out of operation. ReMaCon appears to be

successfully navigating these difficulties,

and has remained one of the leading

manufacturers of pre-cast concrete

retaining blocks throughout.

“When I started the company, we didn’t

have the money to invest in one of these

fully mechanised sort of facilities. So

instead we started with a very labour-

intensive plant, which does benefit us in

many ways - the government gives you

grants for all sorts of things when you

BuildingProgress

As a leading manufacturer and distributor of precast concrete retaining blocksin the Gauteng province mostly, ReMaCon has been committed to accelerating the growth of urban infrastructure across South Africa for more than a decade. Owner Silvio Ferraris tells us about the company, the industry, and the effects of the rolling blackouts on the concrete subsector.

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invest in manufacturing equipment and the

employment of more people,” explains

Ferraris.

“Things have now changed, almost to a

disadvantage from the labour intensive

perspective, mainly because we’ve had so

many strikes over the years. Strikes in the

mining industry, strikes in the steel

industry - everybody wants to go on strike

because everybody wants higher wages,

and the effect that has is that many

factories are tending to move towards

mechanisation. So one wants to reduce

one’s reliance on labour because it’s on

strike so often. And you know, that’s a

problem,” he continues. “We all understand

that they want more money, but at the

same time, we also now have a 25%

unemployment rate amongst mainly poorer

people.”

Another change ReMaCon has faced over

the past few years is changes in safety

standards within the construction industry.

Ferraris explains that South African’s safety

standards are not necessarily applied so

vigorously as they would be in the UK,

Europe or America.

“It allowed a little bit of flexibility, because

you could apply things with a little more

ease and you didn’t have to spend a

fortune to try and get things approved. But

that’s changing now, because many of our

standards are being taken from, for

example, the UK standards and the

European standards.”

Retaining wall blocks are very popular in

the South African construction industry due

to the fact that they are more economical

to manufacture and install than

conventional reinforced concrete walls.

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However, there are inherent risks

associated with their installation, which

makes it particularly important for

manufacturers to carry these safety

standards. ReMaCon hold the SABS mark

standard, and is a member of the Concrete

Manufacturers Association.

“You’ve got to have the standard, because

otherwise you can’t insure your product,

and you can’t insure your supply to remain

within the Consumer Protection Act

legislation,” explains Ferraris. “I carry the

standard because it means that engineers

and end users are comfortable using our

products, and many manufacturers don’t

have the standard — they claim to supply

products made to the standard, but they

don’t actually have the mark certificate for

it.”

While adhering to safety standards is no

trouble for ReMaCon, the company is

experiencing difficulties with factors out of

its control — primarily, the national power

shortage. Eskom, South Africa’s state-

owned electricity utility, has been

struggling for some time now to provide

enough power for the nation’s 50 million

people. Last year, Eskom scheduled a

number of blackouts to avoid more serious

power cuts in the country. The first of this

year’s rolling blackouts arrived earlier this

month.

“We weren’t hit that dramatically last year,

but I believe, come February, we’re going

to be seriously affected. Eskom has got a

problem,” says Ferraris. “They try not to

flip industrial areas. The mines have been

asked to reduce their power consumption,

as have the huge smelter plants — many of

the huge consumers of electricity have

been asked to reduce it.”

It has been reported that South Africa uses

approximately 8% less power than it did in

2008, but the blackouts continue.

“Everybody’s become more efficient, with

the kind of lights we use and all sorts of

energy saving strategies, but in spite of

that, we still have rolling blackouts because

the new power stations have not come

online yet and the old power stations have

lacked the necessary maintenance. And

they’ve confirmed there will be rolling more

blackouts, so we know we’ll be affected,”

he continues.

“When we had the blackouts in 2008, they

seldom cut off the industrial areas. So back

then, occasionally there’d be a problem

and we’d lose half the day. But actually,

this year’s going to be worse.”

The solution favoured by ReMaCon is to

acquire a generator. While this would

minimise the loss of productivity during the

blackouts, it doesn’t come without a cost.

“We could have standby generators, but

we’d have these for the next six to twelve

months perhaps, and then the new power

stations come online and we’d have gone

and spent a fortune on a generator that’s

going to stand idle, however that may not

be the case and we could be experiencing

these problems longer than that”, says

Ferraris.

Despite these setbacks, 2015 is set to be

an exciting and diverse year for ReMaCon.

“First of all, I’m looking for any special

application precast concrete products that

will diversify my business. I started

supplying new products last year already,”

says Ferraris, referring to a new type of

modular free standing concrete wall,

branded YFEL due to its resemblance to the

Eiffel Tower, used for the separation of any

dry bulk products, and for high security

applications with the “anti-climb”YFEL.

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“We’ve specified on a number of big

orders. It’s a full engineered product made

from concrete, but it’s not necessarily used

by the construction industry. It’s used for

applications in the agricultural industry,

ports, waste recycling, in mines, airport

safety and to protect electrical

installations, for example. ‘‘Specialised”

concrete products seem to be ReMaCon’s

focus for the next year, with Ferraris on

the lookout for new products to further

diversify the company. “Self-compacting

concrete technology means that you can

have steel moulds in very intricate shapes.

In the past, when they used conventional

materials, there’d always be a problem but

more modern concrete technology has

been developed which allows for greater

diversity and high concrete strengths. I am

really strategising to go into differentiated

products with special applications so we

can grow further.”

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1624, South Africa

Tel:+27 11 393 5504

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