Category: CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

South Africa’s building industry in dire straits

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  Business confidence in the construction industry has reached record low levels. The state’s tendency to underspend on housing budgets means some R400m will be returned to National Treasury – while the housing backlog, estimated at up to 4m units, continues to grow. Image: iStock South Africa’s building industry is in dire straits, with confidence among major contractors declining to record low levels as a result. The latest FNB-Bureau for Economic Research (BER) building confidence index released on Tuesday reveals that confidence declined in the third quarter to 35 index…

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News South Africa Buzz BUZZ Sisters Who Make Recycled Plastic Bricks Celebrate a Major Milestone: #BossBabes

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An eco-friendly plastic brick company has headed online to celebrate its product being sold in a major retail outlet The brick manufacturing and construction business was founded by two sisters, Kekeletso and Kedibone Tsiloane Mzansi took to the comments section to share their reactions to the super inspirational news A locally manufactured brick company has impressed South Africans with its latest announcement. Ramtsilo Plasti-Bricks was founded by the Tsiloane sisters and today their eco-friendly products can be found in Builders Warehouse stores. Ramtsilo “Plasti-Bricks” are officially available in major retailers…

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Surveying instruments that make building of roads and bridges more accurate

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The Government’s National Development Plan for 2030 has made specific provision for investment into the building of transport networks to drive economic growth and development in South Africa. In building more roads and bridges, surveyors will have to address a number of challenges in the field. Among these is the need for project accuracy, productivity and efficiency. WorldsView, with its range of Topcon products offers surveyors best-in-class instruments and support.   Topcon’s total stations and GNSS receivers offer a reliable solution. Built to deliver accuracy, intelligent data collection and seamless…

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Topcon’s MAGNET7 construction and survey software out now

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Survey and construction software suite MAGNET7 is now available from Topcon, distributed by WorldsView. MAGNET7 uses cloud-based connectivity to streamline workflows through GNSS receivers, total stations and other positioning tools and instruments. It addresses common needs to increase productivity, efficiency and profitability levels across the job site. The software is also designed to improve accuracy while efficiently managing data and collaboration — in real time — with the project team. Enhancements in the MAGNET7 field version improve 3D model support, reporting and interactivity in working directly on a visual map.…

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Concrete possibilities: Colossal Concrete Products acquires Aveng Infraset’s Brakpan and De Aar plants

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With an expanding South African and broader sub-Saharan African population, the need to transform the economic landscape and provide greater infrastructure development and manufacturing capabilities for growing yet sustainable economies is becoming increasingly vital. As such, South Africa-based Mahuma Investment Holdings (MIH), a 100% black women-owned, controlled and managed investment company, engages in a broad range of industrially-related investment activities, particularly within the steel and steel processing and manufacturing sectors. Gwen Mahuma    With an established track record of a substantial number of successfully executed past and current investments –…

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Amazon to set up African headquarters in Cape Town

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  E-commerce tech giant Amazon will have an African base of operations in Cape Town, South Africa. This comes after the City of Cape Town has given the green light for a new R14 billion development that will host Amazon’s new African headquarters. The 15-hectare parcel of land has been approved for development by the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust. The development design intends to create a 150 000 sqm2 mixed-use space, divided into commercial and housing uses across two precincts. The developer intends 31 900 sqm2 to be used for…

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SA construction associations form an umbrella body

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  Casa’s intention is not to compete with existing associations and bodies but to complement them. Almost 30 South African construction sector associations and bodies have united to form an umbrella body, Construction Alliance South Africa (Casa), with the aim of speaking to government with one voice. Casa chairperson John Matthews said on Thursday that Casa is a product of the collective effort of the entire construction industry in South Africa and its formation is a historic moment with far-reaching effects that will transform, grow and improve the industry. “Its…

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Sustainable cement: the simple switch that could massively cut global carbon emissions

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August 22 is Earth Overshoot Day, which marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. This results from massive consumption of ecological resources and accumulation of waste. A large portion of this comes from heavy industry and the way we build our cities. Interestingly, Earth Overshoot Day in 2020 is almost exactly two years since Greta Thunberg initiated the first school strike for the climate. Over the past two years, she has inspired millions of people to fight for…

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Critical shortage of building and construction materials in SA

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  A threat to government’s plan to stimulate the economy through infrastructure investment. The manufacture of bricks was halted for three months during the Covid-19 lockdown, and it’s four- to six-month process. Image: Shutterstock Critical shortages of building and construction materials, including cement, steel, bricks and timber, are suffocating the sector’s recovery from the Covid-19 lockdown and diminishing its impact on the recovery of the economy. David Metelerkamp, senior economist at construction market intelligence firm Industry Insight, said the shortages, if they continue for an extended period of time, have…

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Construction sector is critical to SA’s post-COVID economic recovery

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Traditionally, the development of risk management plans is tailored to address assessed and quantified risks. There is however always the ‘the unknown factor’. Enter the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, we have faced localised pandemics before, but never one on such a globally synchronous scale, thanks to global travel and trade. It propelled the entire world into unchartered territory as mass economic and travel lockdowns were implemented, and contingency plans were hurriedly rolled out. For many industry sectors and businesses already teetering on the brink, it has been a crisis of…

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