Pietermaritzburg-based aluminium producer, Hulamin, is looking to increase its presence in the automotive sector in a bid to stay ahead in an industry increasingly driven to digitise operations.
Its contribution to the beverage and can industries is already thoroughly galvanised, and a recent contract to supply product to the US for the retro-fitting of planes has also boosted the company’s fortunes.
It was however excluded from a list of tariff-exempt exporters to America.
But it was the automotive industry that had been identified as a long-term focal point for Hulamin’s products, said Ayanda Mngadi, corporate affairs executive for the company.
Speaking at a recent Manufacturing Indaba in Sandton, Mngadi revealed that “the requirements of the industry is that we solidify and strengthen our position in the automotive industry, and that we focus on margin enhancement”.
She added that in keeping with modern digitisation trends, Hulamin wanted to entrench its business in the future of mobility.
Mngadi’s indaba insights follow not too long after the company braced itself for “a 55% decrease in earnings a share and headline earnings a share to 25c for the six months ended in June”, Engineering News reported.
The poorer-than-anticipated performance was said to have been brought on by the recent performance of the rand against the dollar and the euro, as Hulamin’s rolled products were principally foreign-dominated.
Despite plummeting profits, the company, which provides employment for about 2000 people in Pietermaritzburg, intends to stay sustainable in a tough, competitive environment.
“I think the biggest challenge for us is to remain labour-intensive as well as technologically savvy,” Mngadi said.
“We don’t want to instil fear in our shop-floor about what lies ahead in terms of the 4th industrial revolution because we don’t want our labourers to think there’s going to be job shrinkage.
“And yet we have to see to it that we remain competitive so we can stay with the curve of technological progress - otherwise we’ll be left behind.”
