About PPC

History

1892

PPC (PPC Ltd), originally named De Eerste Cement Fabrieken Beperkt, commences operations.

1904

Pienaars River Quarry is opened. This quarry is no longer in operation.

1907

The PPC Lime Division is established in the Northern Cape, as The Northern Lime Company, Limited, to meet the needs of the rapidly developing gold mining industry.

1908

De Eerste Cement Fabrieken pays its first dividend and the name changes to PPC Ltd.

1915

Development of the PPC Slurry operation, in the North West Province near Mafikeng begins.

1945

PPC establishes a factory in Orkney.

1948

PPC Technical Services is established to provide in-house services in the chemical, chemical engineering, physical testing and geological departments in the group. It also undertakes research and development for the group.

1953

Northern Lime opens a new plant at Silver streams in the Northern Cape, near Kimberly where a rotary kiln 300 feet in length was installed. No private company can finance this expansion and Northern Lime Company Limited is floated as a public company in December, with Rand Mines retaining technical and administrative control.

1954

Silver Streams begin production in October 1954, and within four years, two additional kilns have to be commissioned. The plant is known as Lime Acres today, with an annual output of one million tons - one of the largest lime works in the world.

1956

PPC Cement Hercules and Jupiter operation are upgraded to produce Portland Blast Furnace Cement. This product (using 50 percent blast furnace slag and 5 percent gypsum) was first used in the construction of Roodeplaat Dam (North of Pretoria).

1959

Slurry is converted to a dry raw mix system that requires less water, reduced power consumption and improved labour productivity.

1960

PPC opens ots Riebeeck operation at RiebeekWest in the Western Cape.

1961

PPC acquires interest in Pioneer Ready Mixed Concrete.

1964

A Durban milling plant comes into production using PPC, Anglo Alpha (AfriSam) and Blue Circle (Lafarge) clinker.

1972

PPC becomes a member of the Barlow Rand Group.

1977

Northern Lime becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of PPC and is renamed PPC Lime Ltd. Barlow Rand gains control of PPC. PPC acquires limestone reserves at Dwaalboom near Northham in the Northern Province, now Limpopo.

1981

The company head office in Parktown is completed.

1982

PPC, Anglo Alpha (AfriSam), Blue Circle (Lafarge) and Cape Lime Holdings agree to establish a clinker factory at Simuma near Port Shepstone. The Umzimkulu deposit provides the raw matarial.

1984

The Dwaalboom Facility, capable of producing 630 000 tons per annum is completed at a cost of 230 million. It is decided that the capacity of Dwaalboom would not be required immediately and the plant is mothballed.

1995

PPC acquires the interest Kohler Packaging held in Kohler Sacks Ltd, becoming the sole owner of the company and renaming the company to Afripack Ltd.

1996

The South African cement cartel is disbanded.

1997

PPC Cement launches the first South African general-purpose cement - SureBuild. The Lime Acres pre-heater is commissioned. Construction of the PPC Saldanha facility at the Saldanha Steel site commences.

1998

Production at Dwaalboom commences. Jupiter, Hercules, Slurry and Dwaalboom packaging and dispatch facilities completed. Afripack plant modernised to meet international standards. PPC Cement launches its new product range aligned with the European specifications - the SABS ENV standards.

1999

PPC Cement launches the first silo stock monitoring system to the South African market. De Hoek and Riebeeck packaging and dispatch facilities completed. PPC Saldanha commissioning complete. Quarry development at Grassridge in the Eastern Cape commences.

2000

PPC Saldanha operations commence. PPC Botswana launches PPC Readymix after purchasing the assets of Pioneer Concrete. These assets included the two supporting ready-,ix plants, which are set up at the base of Kgale Hill and service the greater Gaborone area. PPC Botswana also purchases a share in Kgale Quarry. PPC Cement launches Ground Granulated Corex Slag (GGCS) to the Western Cape market.

2001

PPC acquires Porthold Zimbabwe, the holding company of Unicem, which operates the cement business. The majority of Porthold shareholders, excluding Anglo Zimbabwe shareholders, opt for an all-share exchange of 6,724 PPC shares for every 100 Porthold shares. Only a small percentage of shareholders opt for the cash plus share option of US$ 4,277 plus 2,447 new PPC shares for every 100 Porthold shares held.

PPC Cement launches SureMix to the Gauteng construction market. The SureMix dry mortar system is a range of products produced at the PPC Cement factory site in Hercules, Pretoria, using dried sand, cement, fillers and additives and delivered to the construction site in a silo complete with the required mixing, conveying and application equipment.

2002

On 30 April PPC disposes of its 32, 79 percent share of NPC, located in KwaZulu-Natal, to CIMPOR CIMENTOS DE PORTUGAL SPGS SA. and its 25 percent interest in Ash Resources to Lafarge South Africa.

2003

An agreement is reached for the disposal of up to 75 percent interest in Afripack to a BEE consortium including the management of Afripack. The transaction is subject to conditions that should be completed early in the 2004 financialyear. Progress was made during the year in disposing PPC's 33 percent stake in Slagment. The sale was still subject to conditions precedent at 30 September 2003.

2006

Barloworld and PPC announce that PPC will be unbundled from the Barloworld group during the course of 2007.

2007

PPC is officially unbundled from the Barloworld Group om 9 July 2007 as Barloworld distributes its PPC shares as a dividend.

August 2008

PPC announces its broad-based black economic empowerment ("BBBEE") transaction.

September 2008

Batsweledi - PPC's cement facory expansion at Dwaalboom, produces clinker.

April 2009

PPC announces its Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) level 4 rating as audited by Empowerlogic (Pty) Ltd, a registered verification agency.

June 2009

1 June 2009 - Mr Paul Stuiver is appointed to the board as Chief Executive Officer Designate

July 2009

1 June 2009 - Mr Paul Stuiver succeeds Mr John Gomersall as Chief Executive Officer.

PPC (Cement, Lime, Aggregates)