About us

SUSTAINABILITY
Concern for the well-being of people and our environment

SPONSORING INNOVATION
Forming partnerships with innovators  

CUSTOMER ORIENTATED   
Building long-term relationships through delivering on our promises

PEOPLE OUR PRIME ASSET
Developing our people to their full potential: believing in the strength of diversity

Our facilities

Lafarge Cement operates a 2,4million ton per annum cement clinker facility at Lichtenburg in the North West Province. It is one of the largest and most technically advanced cement works in the country. Construction is progressing to increase our cement capacity by one million tons a year in the first half of 2009. 

The Lafarge Cement Head Office is located at Woodmead in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. Strategically located distribution depots and sales offices provide optimal service to Lafarge customers. In addition to the distribution facility at the Lichtenburg Works, major cement depots are sited at:

• Kaalfontein (Kempton Park, Johannesburg): The depot is equipped to distribute high volumes of our full range of bulk and bagged cement products. The depot also has blending facilities enabling it to formulate some of the products
• Polokwane: the depot distributes the company’s full range of bulk and bagged products to customers in the Limpopo Province
• Richards Bay (northern KwaZulu-Natal): the depot is unique in being sited together with a cement clinker grinding station, which also has blending and bagging capabilities. The facility has the capability to produce in excess of 200 000ton per year of blended cement products. The depot is servicing the high demand for cement from the housing and infrastructure sector in KwaZulu-Natal, together with various harbour expansion projects taking place in Richards Bay and Durban 

Our cement production facilities are SABS/ISO 9001: 2000 listed and the products comply with the latest EN standards.

In compliance with recent changes to the regulations governing the sale of cement in South Africa, the SABS mark on Lafarge cement bags will be phased out and replaced by a Letter of Authority Number indicating that the product conforms to the compulsory specification statement on the bag.

Customers can have confidence in our products. The Lafarge name means:

• an assurance of quality and performance
• a product designed to meet your needs: needs that have been identified from our work with architects, engineers and everyone in the construction process
• a formulation that has benefited from the international Group's technical know-how to create an innovative, user-friendly product
• Sophisticated packaging equipment and management systems that ensure our customers always receive the correct quantity of product they have paid for 

Not only is the Lafarge name your guarantee, but our Lichtenburg Cement Works has had its Packaging Department audited by the SABS and certified to be in compliance with the SANS 1841 standard.  Bags of cement packed at the Works are now permitted to show the SABS e-mark, confirming its packing equipment and management systems can, consistently and correctly, deliver the quantity stated on the bag.

Our major investment in capacity

Work began in April 2007 on a R1,2 billion project, called Project Rainbow, to increase our cement capacity by one million tons per year during the first half of 2009. An important commitment to South Africa by Lafarge, the Project is the largest investment the local cement industry has seen for a very long time. Project Rainbow is made up of two major projects:

Our flagship gets bigger and better

A new clinker production line in our Lichtenburg Cement Works will increase clinker production by 2 000 tons per day. This part of the project represents an investment of R750million.

Once this large complex project is completed, Lichtenburg Works will be able to process over 2 million tons of cement clinker a year. It will be among the largest Lafarge cement plants, out of over one hundred and fifty-six cement and clinker plants operated by the Group throughout the world.

Closer to customers
The new Randfontein Grinding Station

A one million tons a year cement grinding station has been constructed on a greenfield site at Randfontein on the west side of Johannesburg, representing an investment of R450million.

Lafarge Cement’s predominant technical service and quality assurance resource is Quality Department Southern Africa (QDSA), based at Industria to the west of Johannesburg.

QDSA provides quality assurance and technical service to the Lafarge Cement’s operations in South Africa as well as the Lafarge South East Africa businesses in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.

Highly regarded both internationally and in the local construction industry, QDSA operates one of the largest SANAS* Accredited Civil Engineering testing facilities in Southern Africa with a proud track record of 13 consecutive years of accreditation.

• South African National Accreditation System

Customer focus

The QDSA technical team maintains close contact with Lafarge Cement customers, assisting them with their product development work and addressing any technical concerns with on site and/or laboratory collaborative test work.

International expertise

Lafarge Cement is part of the international Lafarge Group, the leader in building materials and the world’s largest supplier of cement. One of the Group’s strengths is the ability to channel its experience and unequalled technical knowledge into the production of innovative products for our local customers.

Lafarge Cement employs 880 people. Their Health & Safety is the company’s No.1 priority. Our aim is protect their well-being and help them develop to their full potential in order to have the satisfaction of contributing to the growth of the company.

Health programme - International Award

Lafarge South Africa was awarded second place in its category and a commendation for business excellence for the company's HIV/AIDS programme from the Global Business Coalition

Development

Our development programmes include:

• Africa Training Centre for accredited trades training
• GIBS leadership and management programmes
• Quality Department Southern Africa provides Chemical Engineering and Analytical Chemistry students with unparalleled opportunities for experiential training
• A range of bursary schemes and learnerships for training and further education

Lafarge Cement believes that building long term relationships with our customers and ensuring that we add value to their businesses is the key to our future success. We are committed to achieving a Customer Orientation culture in which our staff listen to and understand the needs of our customers. We aim to create attractive value propositions for customers and continually improve them. Most importantly, we strive at all times to deliver what we promised.

Our primary, customer focused, services are:

• The CELIA Customer Care Centre provides a rapid response service to queries and complaints
• The Woodmead Call Centre
• Regular visits from our highly motivated sales teams, who are fully informed on all business dealings through our integrated customer service IT network.
• The Lafarge OTIFIC system which monitors our performance on every cement transaction from order processing to satisfactory delivery

Fly ash and the environment:

Lafarge Cement’s increasing use of fly ash as a component of building materials is making a significant contribution to sustainable development by:

• Reducing the use of non-renewable resources such as limestone and coal
• Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from cement plants
• Recycling a waste-product of coal burning power stations which cuts back on the landfill sites

We are the only manufacturer in South Africa offering a complete range of extended ‘green' cements. Through the introduction of these innovative products our Lichtenburg Cement Works achieved a reduction in CO₂ emissions of over 150 000tons during 2007/2008.

Green Building Council

Lafarge Cement is the first member of the building materials industry to join the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA). It is a commitment to assist the Green Building Council in leading the transformation of the South African property industry to ensure that all buildings are designed, built and operated in an environmentally sustainable way. The aim is to allow all people in our country to work and live in healthy, efficient and productive environments.