Expert in steam generation and high-pressure piping, Steinmüller Africa is celebrating 60 years of successful business in Africa, having marked its 60th anniversary in November 2022.
Steinmüller Africa has grown from its original post box location to its current Pretoria-based 30 000 m2 facility.
When it registered as a South African business in 1962, the company’s sole African location was a post box in South Africa, which was checked only when the company’s first managing director, Werner Oehler, passed through South Africa on route to Australia from Germany. It was at this location that Steinmüller Africa received its first invitation to tender – an Eskom tender for the Grootvlei Power Station – which led to the company building its first African head office, just outside the Grootvlei Power Station site, in the 1970s.
The company has since conducted ongoing boiler and high-pressure piping maintenance at the Arnot, Camden, Duvha, Hendrina, Matimba, Kriel, Tuthuka, Matla, Majuba, Grootvlei and Komati power stations. The milestones on its journey are many and the company’s development is linked to South Africa’s industrial growth. The forerunners in its development included the building of boiler plants at Hendrina, Kriel, Duvha, Thuthuka, Majuba, and Mathimba power stations from 1967 through to the early 1980s.
The 1990s saw Steinmüller Africa extend its South African footprint with the Sasol rejuvenation project, the replacement of make-gas boilers at Mossgas, and Iscor blast furnaces. It also expanded its footprint in Africa, undertaking work for the Sappi Mill in Swaziland and the refurbishment of the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) plant. It has worked in Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia as well. The South Africa-based entity took on work in Europe too where it was contracted to fabricate PF boilers in Iskenderun, Turkey.
In SA, between 2004 and 2010 Steinmüller Africa undertook the return to service of mothballed plants at the Camden, Komati and Grootvlei power stations, and began fabrication of boilers and high-pressure pipework at these plants.
Karin Kaempffer, Executive GM: Human Capital Management at Steinmüller Africa, says the company’s progress has been linked to South Africa’s industrial development. “Initially, our technical expertise was overseas-based and our offering to the African market was largely based on our local capabilities.” He adds that Steinmüller Africa now employs advanced engineering tools in its South Africa-based design office and has invested significantly in automated welding technologies at its fabrication facilities. “Both these developments are aligned to our drive to improve productivity, shorten lead times and be a premier utility boiler and steam piping service provider on the African continent,” he says.
Industries that have benefitted from Steinmüller Africa’s work on the continent and beyond include power generation, pulp and paper, chemical and petrochemical, and mineral beneficiation. “Our growth and sustainability, however,” says Kaempffer, “has remained within the power generation and chemical sectors. Our expertise is focused on steam generation and reticulation, and particularly on complex, efficient high-temperature and high-pressure steam. We have the capability to provide solutions across the utility sector, where fuel efficiency is paramount.”
Steinmüller Africa, which has supported most of the leading power generation and chemical utilities in South Africa, was one of the earliest companies to undertake transformation and localisation activities in line with the B-BBEE scorecard and it has had a Level 1 rating over the past several years. “We are proud to be a highly ethical organisation and a preferred employer in our sector,” says Kaempffer. “We have trained and produced a significant number of artisans and technicians for the South African industry.”
In addition to its B-BBEE rating and local skills development, Steinmüller Africa has contributed significant funding to 24 tertiary institutions across Africa to benefit science and technology undergraduates.
“We have covered a lot of ground over the past 60 years, geographically and on the innovation front,” Kaempffer says. “We look forward to another 60 years of growth, to the betterment of our company, the communities in which we work, and the industrial sectors we serve.”
For more information visit: www.steinmuller.bilfinger.com
