Leading South African cement manufacturer, Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC), recently announced significant new product developments which, given the impact that cement has on the cost of concrete, have the effect of reducing concrete costs and allowing builders and contractors to produce 15% more concrete of equal or higher quality than they have been used to in the past.
PPC’s OPC (CEM I) product will change to a 52,5N classification (previously 42,5N) and PPC’s Surebuild has been upgraded from a 32,5R cement to a 42,5N cement. As well as reducing the material cost per cubic metre of concrete, the new products offer other productivity benefits to builders and contractors. These include, among others, faster strength development, quicker removal of formwork, and faster floating and finishing of concrete floors – all of which contribute to optimal use of labour in construction and significant downstream savings.
According to Richard Tomes, customer executive at PPC, the research and development arm and the staff at PPCoperations have been working together to achieve higher and tighter specifications which will ensure that end users get more yield out of every bag of cement. “A project using 100 bags of normal general purpose cement to cast floor slabs in a house would typically yield 70m2. With PPC’s new 42,5N Surebuild, the same project, with the same number of bags, will allow the builder to produce at least 10.5m2 more,” says Tomes.
PPC is a well-established brand. Its cement has been used over the past 119 years and will continue being used to build South African landmarks in the development of the country’s infrastructure and in major construction projects, just as it was with the Union Buildings, Gariep Dam, Van Staden’s River Bridge, the Gautrain infrastructure and Africa’s biggest stadium, Soccer City, now the FNB Stadium.
The new products are being rolled out across the country from July through September 2011.
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