Stainless Steel Awards 2008

Runner Up - Service Category

Metso ND
Service : "Amakhulu Project" expansion of Sappi Saicoor's existing plant

‘Astute engineering and attentive fabrication should stand the test of time and always ensure sound financial and economic benefits for the client,” says Metso ND Engineering’s Nolan Green. This is the principle behind Metso’s success in the pulp and paper industry in Queensburgh, KwaZulu-Natal.

The announcement by Sappi Saiccor to expand its existing plant was met with a great sense of hubbub. When completed, the project, very appropriately named the “Amakhulu Project”, will make Sappi Saiccor the largest producer of chemical cellulose in the world.

A project of this magnitude brings with it a tremendous amount of work and Metso’s long-standing relationship with the mill stood it in good stead on the project.

Metso has almost exclusively serviced the pulp and paper industry in the past. Things have changed since then, the company has grown and diversified to become an influential player across all sectors of industry. However, having built the initial digesters at Sappi Saiccor, Metso was confident. Its tender was successful and it received a fair share of work from this multi-billion rand expansion program.

The order was received in July 2006 and by August 2006 designs and drawings were completed. Procurement of material commenced in September 2006 to prevent delays and by February 2007 Metso was ready to start. Green says: “We had to find new ways of handling the challenges that a project of this nature and magnitude would throw at us. We knew from inception that we needed to be innovative in our approach to this mammoth task.” Metso focused on human capital, believing the secret to success is not only competitively priced factory labour but also innovative and passionate leadership.

Metso allocated 30 personnel  under the leadership of Terrence Reuben, its assistant workshop manager. The team consisted of a project engineer, technical manager, foreman/supervisor, artisan boilermaker, artisan welders, skilled operators and elementary personnel.

“The end product is an achievement that has demanded much respect and recognition. Internally, the pride and camaraderie developed among all involved has been most heart warming,” says Green. This, however, did not come without a fair amount of logistical handling time and all-round fabrication drama. One particular hurdle was how to deliver the 11 fully-built digesters, each weighing an astonishing 40 tons, in one piece. In the end this meant by-passes needed to be built at Metso’s expense to navigate the bridges and other road constraints on the way, much to the advantage of many other contractors facing similar transport problems. Another stumbling block that was successfully negotiated was the erection and installation of the digesters on site. The problem did not lie with the amount of work required, as this had been eliminated by building the vessels in one piece, but rather with the extreme congestion on site and the ‘sumo’ weight of the digesters. A piece of the bank alongside the digester building had to be excavated to make place for the 440 ton crane. The decision to bring in this crane was of immense benefit to the project as yet again it benefited a number of the other contractors on site. 

Notwithstanding all the challenges the team managed to meet the deadline and produced eleven masterpieces internally polished to a 220 Grit Finish, the final six of them in a record six weeks, an outstanding and almost unbelievable achievement. The success of this contract was the result of meticulous planning and accurate implementation and it is for this reason that Metso takes runner-up in the Stainless Steel Awards’ service category.