MCLI Members

Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation Ltd

Group History

Early Beginnings

In 1957 Minerals Engineering of Colorado opened a plant at Witbank designed to produce approximately 1.4 million kilograms of vanadium pentoxide annually. In November 1959, Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Limited acquired a two-third share in Minerals Engineering and in August 1960 the company's name was changed to Transvaal Vanadium Company (Proprietary) Limited.

1960

The Highveld Development Company Limited was established on 19 May 1960 to investigate the viability of processing titaniferous magnetite ore for the production of liquid pig iron and vanadium-bearing slag. In November 1964 the company embarked on a programme to build an integrated iron and steel works near Witbank. The name of the company was changed to Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation Limited "Highveld" on 11 June 1965.

1966

Following the acquisition of the remaining shareholding of Transvaal Vanadium Company (Proprietary) Limited, this company, in August 1966, became a division of Highveld, the largest Vanadium producer in the world. Another South African vanadium producer, Transvaal Alloys (Proprietary) Limited was acquired on 1 January 1994.

1976

Highveld acquired a 65 per cent share in Transalloys (Proprietary) Limited. The remaining interest was acquired in 1985 and Transalloys now operates as a division of Highveld, producing manganese alloys.

1978

Highveld acquired the total issued share capital of Rand Carbide Limited, which had been founded in 1918 in Germiston. The plant had moved to Witbank in 1926 and Rand Carbide now operates as a division of Highveld, producing ferrosilicon and various carbonaceous products.

1985

The group acquired Rheem South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, a company involved mainly in the manufacture of drums, pails and crown closures, in 1985. It operated as a division of Highveld until the various parts were sold partly effective from 1 January 2002 and the rest early 2003.

1991

The group expanded its activities into stainless steel with the acquisition of the stainless steel operation of Middelburg Steel & Alloys (Proprietary) Limited in partnership with Samancor Limited resulting in the formation of the Columbus Joint Venture. The partners each sold a one-sixth share of the Joint Venture to the Industrial Development Corporation in 1993 and the new plant of Columbus Stainless started production in 1995.  Highveld, with effect from 1 January 2002, disposed of 64 per cent of its interest in Columbus Stainless, thereby retaining a 12 per cent interest in Columbus and acquiring a 2.9 per cent interest in the share capital of Acerinox, S.A., a Spanish company listed on the Madrid stock exchange. Half the Acerinox,S.A. interest was sold on 7 January 2005.

1998

Hochvanadium Holding AG and a wholly-owned subsidiary Hochvanadium Handels GmbH commenced business in Austria on 1 December 1998 for the purpose of processing and selling vanadium products.

2003

The corporation acquired a 50 per cent shareholding in South Africa Japan Vanadium (Proprietary) Limited with a plant situated at the steel works which produces ferrovanadium specifically fro the Japanese market.

Contact Highveld Steel & Vanadium Corp. Ltd.

	Simon Simelane
	+27 13 690 8010
	simons@hiveld.co.za
	www.highveldsteel.co.za

© 2004 - 2007 MCLI All Rights Reserved; Member & Partner Corporate Logos, Trademarks and Profiles are the property of the respective Organisations and are reproduced here with their permission. MCLI Guest Speakers' and Third Party PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat PDF and other media presentations are to the best of MCLI's knowledge the property of the respective author/speaker and/or Organisation they represent and are made available to the public or else incorporated into this website with their permission.