CONSTRUCTION materials supplier Afrimat expects earnings and headline earnings per share to be 20%-30% higher for the year to February as a result of lower costs and its involvement in infrastructure projects.

CEO Andries van Heerden said yesterday the company was benefiting from the government’s infrastructure projects, especially the building of power stations, roads and new water systems.

“We are also involved in the building of low-cost houses. Our order book is looking good because of road projects in Mpumalanga and Gauteng,” he said.

Afrimat’s strategy has been to focus on product diversification and enter synergistic industries to position itself for the period after the infrastructure programme.

The diversification is also intended to prepare for an upturn in the residential property market.

Van Heerden said the group was looking at greenfields developments, industry consolidation and the continuous improvement of product quality for growth.

It also planned to expand its geographical footprint in Africa.

“Our Namibian business is doing well but the focus for now is still locally because there is enough work to do,” he said.

“The plan is to ready the group for the recovery of the residential property market in the next two to three years. We want to build enough capacity so that when the residential property market recovers we can take advantage of it and benefit,” he said.

Van Heerden said the group was working on introducing new materials into the building sector as part of its diversification.

He said the group was focusing on government infrastructure spending in the building of the Medupi power station, and was supplying structural concrete and various other aggregates, which are construction materials that include sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, or recycled crushed concrete.

Afrimat was also supplying aggregates for the Kusile power station project.

It was working on road contracts for Gauteng freeways, which also involved supplying aggregates.

The company is one of the three largest suppliers in the local aggregates industry.

Van Heerden said that the group’s geographic expansion programme had gained traction in the past 12 months.

Afrimat was supplying concrete blocks and ready-mix concrete to low-cost housing projects in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.