About the ISF
Introduction to the ISF
The International Steel Fabricators of Southern Africa is a 30+ year-old joint venture marketing consortium representing leading players in the Southern African steel, construction and manufacturing industries involved in steel intensive activities whose objective are to increase their export sales individually or by pooling their resources.
Each company represented by the ISF has an established reputation for their ability to provide their clients with internationally price-competitive and quality-driven products and services for projects anywhere in the world.
ISF members have delivered numerous projects successfully on all the Continents, including Antarctica.
A Brief History of the ISF
The ISF consortium was formed in 1991 by five large South African construction companies to participate in the anticipated Middle Eastern and Gulf Region growth boom.
This consortium was involved in the construction of many landmark buildings and structures in these regions during the following decade involving further collaboration with many other global players until the region developed its own capable players. The iconic Burj al Arab Hotel, Twin Towers Dubai Hotel, Dubai Airport and Qatar Indoor Sports Arena are examples of such structures erected.
By the turn of the Century, the South African Department of Trade and Industries decided to further promote exports and to supported industries that formed non-profit “Export Councils”. It approached the ISF to open its doors to all qualifying companies and the “new” ISF was subsequently also registered in 1999 as a qualifying export council.
ISF Members
Are representative of the upstream, intermediate and downstream carbon and stainless steel value chain in Southern Africa including mills, merchants, fabricators and manufacturers for products and services.
In addition to the millions of tonnes of primary and intermediate steel products available from mill and merchant members p.a., have a combined capacity in excess of 20 000 tons of value-added steel products a month.
Export their products, i.e., primary steel, intermediate steel and finished value-added products and technical expertise worldwide.
Have extensive experience in building almost every conceivable type of carbon and stainless steel structure and equipment, for example, pressure equipment, high-rise buildings, mine structures and processing plant, warehousing, shopping malls, oil & gas trains, transmission and telecom towers, tankage, conveyance systems, ship building and repair, etc.
Client Support
The excellent reputation of the ISF and its members is based on the historical performance of the ISF and its members over the past 30+ years.
Not only are clients assured that they are contracting with well-established companies but also that the whole value-chain represented in project delivery from steel mill, intermediate processor, merchant, fabricator/manufacturer and erector/installer will support end-client satisfaction.
Clients are welcome to directly contact any ISF member without any reference to or involvement of the ISF, as is mostly the case with repeat contracts between clients and suppliers.
Although the ISF Secretariat’s involvement typically ends with the conclusion of a contract, the Secretariat is available to engage with the client and it’s inspectors to ensure on time and quality delivery.
The ISF also advises designers of steel structures and equipment and its most important current development is the maintenance of lists of typical primary and intermediate steel products normally freely available in South Africa. This avoids the re-specification and re-validation of primary materials to be used as well as limiting scrap as lists of available lengths are also maintained.