Vanderbijlpark Works is one of the world's largest inland steel mills and the largest supplier of flat steel products in sub-Saharan Africa. The ISO 9002 and ISO 14001 accredited plant employs some 4500 staff.
The central focus is to maintain and grow its established share of the local market through development of additional value-added products and a focus on industry partnerships. Its international position is being refined by focusing on identified high profit export markets and meeting international levels of operational excellence, product quality and customer satisfaction.
The plant’s steel products are manufactured in an integrated process. Raw materials such as iron ore, coke and dolomite are charged to blast furnaces where they are converted to liquid iron. The liquid iron is refined in basic oxygen furnaces to produce liquid steel. The liquid steel is cast into slabs, which are hot rolled into heavy plate in a plate mill, or into coils in a strip mill. The coils are either sold as hot rolled sheets in coil or processed further into cold rolled and coated products, such as hot dip galvanized, electro galvanised and pre-painted sheet, and tinplate.