For this issue's 'From the president's desk' SAFPA president Willem Gijzelaar turned the tables on Motion Control and invited editor Andrew Ashton to meet the SAFPA council for an informal Q&A on the association's goals and aspirations for the year ahead and the state of the fluid power industry in South Africa.
SAFPA 2008 goals
Gijzelaar explained that one of the primary objectives for SAFPA in 2008 is to increase its membership. Unlike many similar technical associations, SAFPA has concentrated on the corporate side of its membership and while that may limit absolute membership numbers, its members work closely together within SAFPA even though many compete in the commercial world. There is a drive to sign on three or four new corporate members in the first months of 2008.
When asked about the benefits of membership for prospective corporate members the group explained that SAFPA membership offers benefits and imposes obligations on members, and that both aspects are important.
The benefits include opportunities for networking with peers in the industry, attendance at technical meetings, input into MERSETA and associated SAQA decisions affecting education and training standards development, participation in and access to industry surveys on market and salary.
The obligations include an annually renewable commitment to the SAFPA Code of Business Conduct for Corporate Members which requires members to act in accordance with high moral and ethical standards.
For individual members the benefits include professional advice from their industry peers, regular technical meetings and receipt of the Motion Control in Southern Africa publication. There are also opportunities for social interaction during the year at events like the intercompany soccer day, golf day and annual dinner dance.
There is a sense that the quality of the fluid power industry and its members is continually improving as a result of SAFPA's activities.
Another and associated SAFPA objective for this year's council is to get the message across to the market, and especially to end users and consumers of fluid power equipment and services, of the importance of doing business with SAFPA corporate members. SAFPA's intent is to get to the point where major purchasers require SAFPA membership of their suppliers and include this in their tender qualification process. The concept behind this being that SAFPA members are reputable fluid power suppliers who have committed to a code of conduct and been vetted by their peers. In exchange SAFPA would continue to ensure that members work in accordance with its code of conduct and would facilitate dispute handling.
SAFPA will also continue to promote formal education and training in the fluid power industry to the benefit of end users.
Technology evenings
For 2008, technology meetings are planned or being considered on the following subjects:
* Educational standards, MERSETA and SAQA.
* Hydraulic seals.
* Profibus.
* Hydraulic oils.
* Safety.
* Energy efficiency.
… and ad hoc opportunities to hear from specialists visiting from foreign principals.
State of the market
Motion Control asked the council about the size and state of the market.
It is quite apparent that last year was an excellent one for participants in the fluid power industry and based on extrapolations of the last market survey the consensus is that the fluid power market in South Africa is currently around R5bn.
The general slowdown experienced towards the end of 2007 has reduced confidence, but industry participants say that they are still meeting budgets. For many, sales are closely related to mine expenditure and even though resources are near all-time highs the mines have been on cost-cutting exercises and in many cases they are buying lowest cost.
The feeling is that the fluid power market is still growing, but not as fast as last year and there is not the same level of entrepreneurial growth. Most of the group quoted people skills as a limiting factor for both suppliers and end users. This is being exacerbated by problems in primary education. If basic numeracy and literacy are lacking how can we train engineers and technicians?
Even though capex in mining and construction is booming, a large proportion of the capital equipment is imported so the local fluid power industry is only benefiting from the maintenance and repair work, not the capital sales.
Globalisation and the growth of Chinese manufacturing have seen South Africa lose most of its manufacturing base so fluid power has become principally a service industry.
The weakening Rand is also having negative consequences for steel and fuel prices which are driving up inflation and eroding margins.
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