Industry body the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (Saisc) launched its ‘brand for hire’ initiative in June as a means of improving the organisation’s financial sustainability while raising the profiles of member companies.

While the organisation has traditionally relied largely on membership fees as its primary source of income, the initiative enables the Saisc to unlock new revenue opportunities, which will assist it in sustaining the wellbeing of the South African steel value chain, Saisc CEO Amanuel Gebremeskel says.

“The initiative gives member companies and other industry professionals the opportunity to leverage the Saisc’s substantial industry brand equity and credibility, boosting their profiles across South Africa, the rest of Africa and more broadly,” he enthuses.

The initiative is ongoing and includes various events, networking opportunities and digital training sessions. One such event is the yearly Steel Awards.

Saisc is engaging with potential partners and sponsors for the event and for other ‘brand for hire’ related initiatives.

The organisation aims to use the initiative to help expand on its traditional roles as a custodian of quality and as a key steel sector marketing role-player.

“We envisage Saisc members providing sponsorship and associating themselves with training courses and quality standards development while synergistically benefiting from our ‘brand for hire’ campaign, which is all about helping more steel companies to benefit from the Saisc brand,” says Gebremeskel.

Benefits include, for example, travelling with Saisc to international trade shows and sister steel institute conferences, which can help create opportunities for business abroad.

Meanwhile, Saisc’s planned quality certification programme initiative will ensure that high-quality steel industry standards are maintained, with the organisation planning to establish these standards across Africa without having to wait for the pan-African public sector to impose them.

“Once we have developed these steel industry standards, we aim to create a quality certification programme, developed in collaboration with industry and our sister organisations internationally. This will allow . . . members and, ultimately, also non-member companies to obtain a Saisc quality certification,” Gebremeskel adds.

Hence, the initiative serves to endorse the reputations of South African steel companies by providing access for players working on large multinational steel projects globally.

Moreover, Saisc aims to engage with Australia- and Canada-based mining companies that are currently active in Africa.

“The institute is working to unify the local steel industry so it can position itself better for the pan-African market. The aim is to leverage on our South African capacity to develop in Africa – ‘Team Africa’,” Gebremeskel concludes.