PPC’s Hercules cement plant, is still in operation
today, 125 years after it was first established.
Ten years after the establishment of
the plant, in 1902, De Eerste Cement
Fabrieken Beperkt changed its name to
The First Portland Cement Factory Limited,
and six years after that it changed again,
this time to the name we all know today:
Pretoria Portland Cement. In 1910, 18 years
after its inception, PPC was listed on the
Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In the 107
years since that listing, the company has
grown to become South Africa’s largest
cement producer, surviving two world wars,
several recessions, and the booms and busts
of the cement market.
Today, PPC has 11 cement factories in
South Africa, Botswana, DRC, Ethiopia,
Rwanda, and Zimbabwe, and an annual
production capacity of around 11.5 million
tonnes of cement products. The company’s
materials business comprises Safika
Cement, Pronto Readymix (including Ulula
Ash), and 3Q Mahuma Concrete, and in the
ready-mix sector its footprint has grown
to include 26 batching plants across South
Africa and Mozambique.
In addition to its cement products, PPC
produces aggregates through its Mooiplaas
aggregates quarry, as well as metallurgical-
grade lime, burnt dolomite, and limestone
through PPC Lime. n
22 _ QUARRY SA | NOVEMBER 2017
PPC has produced the cement used to build many of South Africa’s iconic landmarks,
including the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
The northern entrance to the Huguenot Tunnel on the N1 highway in the Western Cape
province of South Africa.
Sources
•
•
Understanding Cement. 2017 ‘Cement history’.
http://www.understanding-cement.com/history.html.
Portland Cement Association. 2017. ‘History of Portland Cement’.
http://www.concretethinker.com/detail/History-Portland-Cement.aspx.