The company has a staff of sixteen and has supplied more than 700 ovens, furnaces and related equipment to companies and operations across Southern Africa.
Coetzee tells Mining Weekly that his company is highly regarded by both the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and Eskom’s Industrelek, a company striving to help industry use electricity more efficiently.
For instance, in 2000 the company was invited by Industrelek to present a national forum on thermal heating, underlining ZEE’s high standing in Industrelek’s eyes.
In 1999, the company won the SABS’s Design Institute’s design-of-the-year award for the development of the patented Imbiza oven.
The company’s manufacturing and head office is in Richards Bay, with representative offices in Kempton Park, Krugersdorp, Maritzburg, Middel-burg and Cape Town.
Due to the company’s head office being situated in Richards Bay, the company is well placed to supply a number of industrial developments in the northern Kwazulu-Natal town, says Coetzee.
The company is a supplier to Bayside aluminium smelter, the Hillside aluminium smelter, as well as the Richards Bay Coal Terminal and mining company Richards Bay Minerals.
Other companies that receive ZEE original equipment include Bell Equipment and Mondi Kraft.
Coetzee tells Mining Weekly that the company has secured a number of new contracts within the last six months.
These include a R600 000 air-heater for a carbonate-mine on Kwazulu-Natal’s South Coast, a R250 000 spontaneous-combustion determinator for SABS’s Coal and Mineral Technologies (CMT) in Richards Bay, foundry equipment for ZCBF worth R130 000, also in Richards Bay, and a R65 000 ladle-curing station for the Mozal project, in Mozambique.
Apart from supplying equipment in Mozambique, ZEE has also been a supplier to concerns in other African states, including Zimbabwe and Zambia.
ZEE, which for the latest financial year had a R5,5-million turnover, has also been involved in the development of a number of new products, Coetzee enthuses.
One of the most notable is the spontaneous-combustion determinator, which was developed in conjunction with CMT, and will determine the combustionability of coal.
Coetzee says this is the first of its kind in the world to use the electrically-heated principle to determine the combustionability of coal.
Other product developments include the extension of the range of the Imbiza ovens, as well as the combined inherent and total moisture oven.
Coetzee reports that ZEE’s equipment is of a high standard, but less expensive than that available from abroad.
Edited by: Marius Roodt
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