A local manufacturer of steel products for the mining industry is expanding its global footprint as a result of its expanded product line.

VR Steel says that the expanded product line will include attachments for rope and hydraulic shovels, excavators and rigid and mining dump trucks.

The company recently established relationships with Canadian, Chinese and Indian distributors, which will be marketing and selling the com- pany’s products in those countries.

Further, it intends to identify distributors in the US, parts of Australia and countries in Africa north of the Sahara. Other new markets being targeted, where draglines are either limited or nonexistent, are Chile, Columbia, Venezuela, Canada, Morocco, Turkey and the whole of South-East Asia.

In the last few months, VR Steel has developed, manufactured and tested a rope shovel, a hydraulic face shovel, and two truck bodies.
Previously, the company’s main markets were South Africa, the US and Australia, which were supplied with dragline buckets through VR Steel’s representatives.

VR Steel CEO John van Reenen tells Engi-neering News that the extended product line was not solely responsible for the appointment of international distributors, but that the company’s policy of having its own representatives in global markets did not work.

A positive response to the company’s products is expected from the international markets, as a result of the significant interest already received for the extended product line, which also has a new design range.

Van Reenen says that the decision to include other products besides the dragline bucket is a result of the fact that the company’s technology is premised on moving dirt, which is what the extended product range aims to do.

Meanwhile, VR Steel recently supplied two new dragline buckets to coal-miner Anglo Coal’s Isibonelo colliery, in Mpumalanga pro- vince, with potential orders expected in the next few months.

The company has also been approved as one of three bucket suppliers to seaborne coking-coal-miner BHP Billiton’s Mitsubishi Alliance, in Australia, with two buckets being dispatched in the next two weeks.

Van Reenen says that the rapidly rising steel prices have led to an increase in the cost of products, which is expected to continue for a few years.

“The mines are being paid significantly more for their products, so they have easily been able to absorb the increase in prices of products. “When the commodity price cycle shows signs of a decrease in future, steel prices will also reduce.

“While the consensus in South Africa appears to be that ArcelorMittal South Africa is responsible for the high prices of steel in the country, I believe that, on a global scale, the prices are similar, having just received a quote from China, where the pricing is very similar to ArcelorMittal’s,” he concludes.


http://www.miningweekly.co.za/article.php?a_id=129992


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