and engineering industry and behind this revolution was Iscor , a giant Pretoria steelworks that had started production in 1943 .
Faced with a cut-off in the overseas supply of production equipment and finished articles , the South African industry rose to the challenge with remarkable ingenuity and resourcefulness . Within a few months , engineering workshops were converted into efficient munitions factories and began turning out an everincreasing range of wartime equipment and spares comparable in quality with munitions produced in Britain and the United States .
Between 1940 and 1944 factories across the country delivered :
• More than 57 000 armoured fighting vehicles and 35 000 military motor vehicles ;
• Over 70 000 tons of bombs , 50 000 tons of shells and shell casings and 28 000 tons of mortar bombs , grenades and landmines ;
• Nearly 20 000 tons of small arms and ammunition ; and
• Over 1.5 million steel helmets .
INTEGRITY STRATEGY AND SERVICE
INNOVATION LEADERSHIP
OVERALL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Out of these wartime facilities came aircraft hangars , bridges , travelling cranes , barges , rock drills , pumps and valves , electric motors , transformers , field hospital equipment , ships ’ stores for the British Admiralty , thousands of kilometres of telephone and telegraph wire for the signal services … the list is almost endless . The Western Desert pipeline supplying water for Allied troops in North Africa was built largely from South African materials .
Industrial relations were also becoming more organised . In 1944 , the National Industrial Council for the Iron , Steel , Engineering and Metallurgical Industries was formed – and the first national wage agreement for the industry was forged . Peace brought not a feared recession , but an explosive increase in South Africa ’ s metal and engineering industry . In the second half of the 1940s , the number of metal and engineering undertakings grew by many hundreds – and employment soared from 76 000 to over 110 000 .
Industrial production also became more sophisticated . For the first time , domestic appliances and radios were made in South Africa . Brown Boveri Technologies began producing electrical power and control equipment . Significant investments were made in the production of copper and copper alloy and semi-fabricated aIuminium products
Isilo Steel is a proudly South African , black owned steel trading & high volume steel procurement company .
We offer value add services to our clients , backed by our exceptional knowledge of steel products and years of experience working with local and foreign suppliers .
Our main focus is the in-bound supply chain for steelconsuming businesses that are not sufficiently geared or skilled to manage this process on their own .
The SA Bureau of Standards opened its doors and introduced quality and performance specifications for local manufacture . On the political front , a minority Nationalist government had been voted into power by white voters in 1948 , and an ominous new word was introduced to the national vocabulary : apartheid . For more than four decades , the Nationalists would battle the world from their latter-day laager . Their stride in pursuit of apartheid – later euphemistically called “ separate development ” – would play out as a human tragedy of monumental proportions . It would blight the lives of millions of South Africans .
OUR RANGE
Hot Rolled Plate , Coil & sheet ; Cold Rolled Coil & sheet ; Galvanized Coil & sheet ; Universal Beams ; Universal Column ; TF & PF Channel ; Angles , Flat Bar ; IPE ; Channel ( Light and Medium ); Unequal Angle ; Lipped Channel ; Round Bar ; Square Bar ; Round Tube ; Square Tube ; Rectangular Tube and Window Sections
CONTACT
Michael Perimal Tel : 011 861 7612 Mobile : 060 542 2003 Michael . Perimal @ isilosteel . co . za www . isilosteel . co . za
SEIFSA AT 75 SEIFSA AT 75 - SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE MAGAZINE 21
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