We read about our challenges every day, one of my colleagues has insisted that if I use the word “challenge” one more time, I might disappear. What can we do? Here’s an Idea!!
Buy South African.
BUY SOUTH AFRICAN!! (and African!)
If each and every one of us does our bit, we could stimulate demand. In a recent article on the Australian budget I found a gem. For the next two years, under the federal government’s plan, Australia’s small businesses will now be able to claim an immediate tax deduction for every item they purchased up to $20,000. No mention of buy Australia but they are Australian after all. We have been working with DTI on a number of initiatives regarding designation of fabricated structural steel and other products. The most recent being published in their industrial policy action plan.
Remember that each and every one of us can make a difference to a local manufacturer. Don’t ask for incentives and localisation targets if you do not practice what you preach.
Buy South African!
A number of students have come through the first half of the Steel Academy courses. Thank you to all the ‘students’ and lecturers, we have had excellent feedback. Also expect more new and relevant courses from the Steel Academy.
One of the positives of all the connection design courses and presentations on the SAISC eToolkit is that massive savings are possible on connection design. Not only are the connection designs in the eToolkit lighter, they are much cheaper to fabricate (i.e. massive savings in hours) compared to some of the so called ‘standard designs’ our fabricators are expected to use. So please continue to “Come, Learn and Interact”.
Buy South African!
Multi-storey steel framed buildings are popping up in a number of places. There are some game changing developments happening at the moment one of which is being developed by the SAISC. The most recent Steel Academy course on fire engineering design was well attended. We hope that new knowledge will improve our competitiveness even further. Two of our interns are now finishing their training and should now graduate. I would like to thank Genrec Engineering and Tass Engineering for assisting us. Come on guys, this is an opportunity for you to make a meaningful contribution to transformation by training and developing young South Africans. Many of these young graduates are now looking for opportunities in our industry. There are too many young people in our country with degrees who are unable to find meaningful employment so let’s utilise these young brains to help us push the industry forward. See page 9 for a letter of thanks from one of our interns. Yes, we can make a difference this is real transformation in action.
We have just added another sub-association to the SAISC group – The Association of Structural Steel Draughtsman (ASSD). Thank you, to all involved in setting up this association. I believe that we not only have excellent detailers and draughtsman out there but by working more closely with other disciplines we can achieve our competitiveness goals.
This is another: Buy South African!
Watch this space as there are a few more associations on the way which I believe will add value to the steel industry.
