Structural steel fabrication company Cousins Steel International (CSI) asserts that succession planning and robust synergies are the catalysts that have led to its enduring success.

The company, which blends its decades-long legacy with modern steel technology is proud of its background and track record and equally, of its current synergies which energise and drive the business forward today.

Its predecessor, Cousins Steel CC was a 55-year-old fabrication company located in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal and started by brothers Lynton and Craig Cousins.

A long-standing relationship with the Cousins brothers saw professional engineer Mike Oldfield outsource the fabrication of the more than 2 000 steel structures from 2001 onwards – bound mostly for the Madagascan ammonia sulphate mines.

This mutually beneficial relationship culminated in a joint venture for the Madagascan and other pan-African export projects, known as CSI in 2001. From that point CSI acted as a design office with the fabrication taking place at Cousins Steel CC’s Mkondeni facility.

The CSI and Cousins Steel CC relationship and collaboration prospered for another 20 years, until the Cousins brothers stopped fabricating in 2021.

“As CSI, we had to make some tough decisions. Should we find another fabrication partner or – in a somewhat revolutionary move at the time – should we take on the challenge of fabricating in-house ourselves,” CSI director Adam Oldfield recalls.

“We decided to go for it, and struck a deal with [the Cousins brothers] to purchase their surplus steel, vehicles and fabrication equipment,” he adds.

The search for a larger premises began at the start of 2021, and Oldfield found the “perfect structural steel facility” in Mount Edgecombe Industrial Park in KwaZulu-Natal.

Steel Succession

Despite Cousins Steel CC closing when the brothers retired in 2021, its “proud steel fabrication legacy lives on in CSI” which has combined design, engineering, and fabrication while remaining true to its safety, quality and client service ethos.

“In 2021, we worked to proactively market the company and reassure the [sector] that although [the Cousins brothers] no longer looked after the fabrication side, CSI was very much still in operation, and going from strength to strength,” Oldfield emphasises.

He asserts that he and his team have built up an “enviable track record of structural steel project delivery” within three short years. This includes several award-winning projects – extending from Riverhorse Valley to Phoenix and the Dube TradePort, which is expected to grow into the R1-trillion Durban Aerotropolis.

Currently, CSI is also engraving its presence on Durban’s most recent industrial park, Brickworks, at Avoca in Durban, through its recent completion of a 40 000 m2 superstructure that will feature in this year’s Southern African Institute of Steel Construction awards.