ZUNGU ELGIN – Innovation Brings Industrial Transformation

It is rare these days to find an engineering outfit strong enough to have withstood more than 70 years in this most challenging of SA industries, but since its 1949 foundation Zungu-Elgin has been strengthening and developing to remain at the forefront of the medium to heavy trade.

The mood has been sombre for some time now in a number of key economic sectors in South Africa, and for manufacturing the picture has been among the bleakest. An acute skills shortage is resulting more and more in a growing, serious mismatch between the capabilities demanded by an increasingly sophisticated economy and those currently in supply.

“Regrettably,” expounds Business Report, “at a time when many are heralding the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, South Africa is not training enough engineers, artisans or technicians to deliver on the National Development Plan’s long-awaited R845 billion strategic infrastructure projects.

“We find ourselves in the company of other developing countries where crucial infrastructure projects compete for a diminishing skills pool.”

SWEETENING THE DEAL

What this does mean, is that for the cream of the crop there are many opportunities to be found, where those precious skills can be found in abundance and put to the very best use. Boasting the logistical benefits of being situated close to the Durban harbour, and only 40 km from King Shaka International Airport, Zungu-Elgin has become the go-to manufacturer and equipment repairer for the sugar and petrochemical industries, and spreads its influence to incorporate general engineering and ship repair.

“Today, Zungu-Elgin supplies more than 350 sugar rolls per year to the global sugar industry and has a workshop specially dedicated to the manufacture and maintenance of all types of sugar industry plant and equipment,” the company proudly elaborates of one its specialisms.

“We are able to undertake fabrications and castings of any size, using our own large-scale foundry and furnace facilities.”

Sugar is a hugely important commodity in the African context, and while there are challenges associated with it, there are exponentially more opportunities which it affords in Africa. The R14 billion industry is cost-competitive, and consistently ranks in the top 15 out of approximately 120 sugar producing countries worldwide.

Stretching across two provinces of South Africa, namely Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, the sugar industry makes a positive difference to the lives of more than a million people and is a catalyst to economic growth and development. The South African sugar industry is a significant contributor to the national wealth and operates in rural areas of the country.

Zungu-Elgin has an African footprint which stretches up to Egypt and down to South Africa, and betwixt Ivory Coast and Ethiopia and everything in between. Its product range spans sugar milling equipment including shredders, cane knives, mills and hilo unloaders, and process equipment such as diffusers, vacuum pans, crystallisers, evaporators and juice heaters.

Zungu-Elgin also boasts an unrivalled range of sugar maintenance spares, which encompass mill rollers and reshells, scrapers and trash plates, refurbishment of cane knives and shredder rotors and pinions and mill bearings.

The engineering pioneer is clearly fully aligned with another of what Business Report deems essential to the triumph in the industry: “For the country to remain globally competitive the business community must be on the cutting edge of technological advancement and innovation,” it states.

“We must be willing to make the necessary investments in technologies in order to reduce our production costs and ensure that we remain competitive both domestically and internationally.”

To this end, Zungu-Elgin never stops plunging resources and research into keeping its sugar equipment and machinery at the cutting edge. There are swathes of recent examples of this desire to upgrade and renew, so much so that it is difficult to know where to begin; sugar driers, continuous vacuum pans, vertical crystallisers and cane and bagasse diffusers are just a small number of the company’s recent improvements, all serving to further strengthen arguably its core offering.

FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

Petrochemicals too remains right at the top of the list of priorities for Zungu-Elgin, which has long been at the forefront of Heat Exchanger technology and established a reputation for being able to manufacture high standard, high performance equipment to all specifications.

“One of our key achievements has been the manufacture of the largest Texas Rower rod baffle exchanger in the world,” the company states.

“Our shell and tube heat exchangers are designed and manufactured to ASME and TEMA standards, while our pressure vessels meet ASME and British standards.” Another key development was a Cold Heat Exchanger, for use in an acid plant. “This was the first full manufacture in our workshop,” Zungu-Elgin expands.

“The biggest milestone was the successful transportation of the finished product. The advantage of this type of manufacture is that it does not tie up site utilities and space, and production is hedged from disturbances caused by weather conditions hence down-time is also reduced.”

It was Elgin’s innate strength and aptitude for innovation that was among the primary factors in prompting business mogul Sandile Zungu’s Zico to pledge R50 million to rescue Elgin Engineering in 2016. Business rescue practitioner Sipho Sono and corporate advisor Patrick Birkett had been mandated by Elgin shareholders to seek an investor with 250 facing job losses.

“Elgin is one of the strongest engineering fabrication and services brands in Africa, and will play a pivotal role in the clean fuels environment in the petrochemical industry and in South Africa’s re-industrialisation,” Zungu said of the pairing.

The combination of Zungu Investments Co., National Empowerment Fund (NEF) and Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in the partnership was also lauded as a massive boost to plans to accelerate black economic participation. “Zungu-Elgin will act as a catalyst to accelerate black economic participation in the engineering industry through ownership, management and control,” added Sandile Zungu.

The investment caught the attention of political commentators given the vision of transforming critical sectors of the economy, as noted the province’s Economic Development MEC Sihle Zikalala. “It is encouraging to note that Zungu Investments, a black-owned company, has yet again made inroads into a sector that holds immense potential for turning around the province’s economic fortunes through job creation and skills transfer,” he said.

“This will secure an engineering industry that is diversified and inclusive. The advancement of women remains high on our transformation agenda,” Zungu concluded at the launch of the company, and Zungu-Elgin has more than delivered on its early promise as, bit by bit, it’s commitment to transformation shapes the industry and enables it to lead where others follow.