Press Releases

Solutions for Heavy Structures

26 August 2019

What do highway bridges, mining headgears and long-span industrial structures have in common?

They are all heavy structures requiring a range of structural sections not available to the local market as they not produced by local mill producers. In many cases where importation is not viable, there is a solution – Macsteel’s fabricated plate girders.

Macsteel Trading Germiston South offers fabricated plate steel girders, plate girder or manufactured plate girder sections. These are made-to-order heavy steel structural sections that are manufactured and delivered to local steel fabricators, EPCMs and mining houses, both locally and within the southern African market through the Macsteel Exports business unit. Lead times vary depending on the size of the girder, length, quantities required and availability of plate stock.

Over the past few months the Trading Division has been engaging extensively with fabricators to optimise on manufacturing costs (assembly and welding) and through this partnership we have increased value-added orders and increased our trading margins. It’s win-win all round.

While we’re really pleased that we can offer these solutions to the local market, it’s worth noting a couple of points: descriptions of bill of quantities may vary, e.g. plated beam box girder. By simple definition, a plate girder is essentially a large I-section (or universal beam) manufactured from plates. Our range of hot-rolled sections goes right up to a 533 x 210 x 122 UB (with the exception of imports) but in certain cases this section is not sufficiently strong to carry certain loads. In these instances, the engineer will design a plate girder. These are manufactured by welding three plates together – two flanges and one web – to form a deep I-section. Box girders are typically welded from four or more profiled plates to create a boxed or hollow section.

Providing these options goes back to our customer-centric approach where solutions are found based on customer needs and wants. It’s not always easy in this environment, but we find a way.

If you have an enquiry, speak to us and we’ll find the answer.