On the occasion of the company’s 21 anniversary, AF talks to New Age Engineering Solutions’ Founder and CEO, Joseph Zinyana, about some of the highlights of the company’s journey.
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New Age’s engineering solutions include project management, mechanical and piping, pressure vessel tanks and pressure parts.
“We established New Age in November 2003, so last year marked our 20th anniversary, and now we’re 21 – two decades plus one – and we continue to build and grow,” begins Joseph Zinyana, the founder and CEO of New Age Engineering Solutions.
New Age now operates in five key regions across South Africa: Gauteng, Sasolburg in the Free State, Secunda in Mpumalanga, Cape Town in the Western Cape, and Rustenburg in the North West.
“In Cape Town, we’ve been servicing the Astron Energy petrochemical plant, formerly Chevron, since 2015, and we have maintained a permanent presence at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station since 2007,” notes Zinyana. Their services include project management, mechanical and piping work, and pressure vessel tanks and pressure parts. “We are certified under ISO 3834 Part 2 for fabrication and on-site pressure vessel installation, although we don’t hold the ASME VIII Division 1 certification required to manufacture pressure vessels,” he clarifies.
New Age has provided general maintenance and shutdown service support at Koeberg – South Africa’s only nuclear power station – for 17 years. “Additionally, We have a contract for quality control and welding engineering to help ensure the plant’s health and reliability,” he adds.
Moving on to the Mpumalanga area, where the company’s head office is situated, he points out that the bulk of New Age’s work is with Sasol Synfuels, which provides about 40% of turnover. “Sasol is currently our largest client. We provide them with mechanical services and solutions and do maintenance and shutdown work across their plants. Our relationship with Synfuels began in 2012, so it’s now a 12-year partnership,” he says.
As with any long-term partnership, maintaining high safety standards is crucial.
“Safety is paramount, especially in the petrochemical and nuclear sectors, where standards are very steep,” Zinyana emphasises. “I’m proud to say that in our 21-year history, we have never experienced a fatality. We recently completed a shutdown in Secunda with a recordable case rate (RCR) – the total number of work-related injuries or illnesses per 100 full-time employees per year – of just under 0.2, finishing three days ahead of schedule.”
Additionally, the New Age maintenance team at Astron Energy Main reached a milestone of 1 000 000 man-hours without a lost time injury. A commendable performance!
In Sasolburg, New Age is actively servicing the Sasol 1 refinery and recently secured a three-year contract at the NATREF refinery, covering both mechanical projects and welding services. “In addition, we have been awarded an on-site contract by Omnia, a fertiliser producer, to construct 20-metre tanks, and that team is already on-site and performing well,” he notes.
Most recently, in the Sasolburg area, New Age has been awarded a maintenance services contract with SAFRIPOL, a leading South African producer of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP). The company manufactures 160 kt of HDPE and 120 kt of PP annually.
“We have also just been awarded the contract from the Sasolburg-based engineering Solutions company, MegChem, for the construction of a boiler gas feed line between NATREF and Sasol 1, as well as the OBL pipeline (outside battery limits) for a plant extension for Air Products. Also just completed is the platformer feed basin for Natref. And all of these are structural, mechanical and piping (SMP) projects,” he says
“MegChem has now become an intimate partner to New Age and we are currently busy with another OBL project in ASTRON Cape Town for them,” Zinyana adds.
When zooming in on the North West Province, he highlights another SMP project at a platinum plant. “This is a breakthrough for us in the mining and minerals sector. It is a substantial project for our business in the Rustenburg area and we have already completed our first shutdown,” he informs AF.
Reflecting on the early days, Zinyana recalls that New Age started as a consultancy organisation focused on inspection and welding engineering. “That changed in 2005 when we manufactured some modular plant units for the export market, which incorporated pressure vessels, piping and instrumentation fabricated here in South Africa according to NQA Level 1 requirements and certification.
“Then, in 2006, we were invited to install a refrigeration system for York International – now Johnson Controls – in a platinum mine in Rustenburg and a gold mine in Johannesburg. These two milestone projects were stepping stones into the diverse business we run today,” he adds.
What does the future hold?
“Now, we are looking to branch into the African market on the plant servicing side. Africa is growing, and we expect to see more and more plants coming on stream that will likely need experienced servicing contractors,” Zinyana says.
Zinyana assures that New Age is also dedicated to building a strong foundation for the future by training the youth and providing on-the-job experience to bridge the gap between school and workplace readiness. Through training programmes, New Age is preparing the skilled workforce to meet the evolving demands of industry.
“In the upcoming years, we aim to broaden our expertise in the nuclear sector,” he says. “We plan to partner with SAIW and Necsa to train student interns in the high-level skills necessary for nuclear plant and component fabrication and testing.”
Zinyana believes nuclear energy will be essential for the future, as it provides reliable base-load power without emitting CO2. “It’s clean and, contrary to common belief, very safe,” he adds.
“However, there’s a global shortage of nuclear skills. We want to help rebuild local skills in South Africa to ensure we have the capacity needed when the nuclear new-build projects start,” Zinyana concludes.
