Foseco South Africa has announced the appointment of Lungile Koti as its new General Manager for the company’s South African foundry division’s manufacturing plant and sales office, which is situated in Alrode, Gauteng. Koti succeeds Enno Krueger who left the company at the end of 2022.
Koti hails from the Eastern Cape village of Centane. After completing his schooling, a desire to better himself led to him moving to the Gauteng area to start studying for a National Diploma in Chemical Engineering at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), which he completed in 2002. In 2013 he completed a BTech Degree in Operations Management also through VUT and this year he completed his BComm Degree in Supply Chain and Operations Management through Unisa.
Lungile Koti
Although Koti has no experience in the foundry industry most of his working career has been spent at chemical manufacturing related companies. His most recent position was Operations Manager – Gauteng at AECI Industrial Chemicals. He was based at the company’s manufacturing plant in Chloorkop, Gauteng. Koti worked in the Industrial Chemicals division manufacturing product for the home care and phosphoric acid businesses. Koti spent eight years with the company.
Prior to his last appointment Koti worked for Sasol Limited, Johnson Matthey, Walro Flex, and Botswana Ash.
“Most of my career I have either been Operations or Factory Manager working in the factory and production environment so I have a reasonable amount of experience in this area. Foseco South Africa has a relatively large manufacturing plant producing coatings, binders, sleeves and insulating board for the local foundry industry. We have a staff compliment of 50. Initially my focus will be on ensuring an improved plant reliability and later more focus will be placed on exploring how the business market share can be expanded,” explained Koti.
“We are part of a well-renowned international company that has all the modern manufacturing systems already in 19 production sites and 28 sales offices. We can call on this expertise at any time and they also drive improvement performance from the top down,” continued Koti.
“If necessary, we will increase our headcount as the implementation of the business strategy requires. At the moment there are no significant capex plans but that could change.”
“On the commercial side of the business, I will oversee a push for growth in market share not only in South Africa but into our neighbouring African countries as we see opportunities.”
Since 1932, Foseco has continuously developed product and process innovations for the foundry industry. These include exothermic and insulating feeding systems, filtration of liquid alloys, direct pour technology, solidification simulation software, non-ferrous metal treatment and degassing systems, metal stream inoculation, electrostatic coatings, environmentally friendly binders and insulating ladle lining systems.
Foseco (Foundry Services Company) has been associated with the metals industry for 91 years and today is acknowledged as a world leader in the supply of consumable products for use in the foundry industry with a presence in 32 countries and major facilities in Germany, USA, UK, Brazil, China, India, South Korea and Japan. The company was acquired by Vesuvius plc, a London Stock Exchange listed company, in April 2008.
Foseco are one of the leading suppliers to the foundry industry and pride themselves on the fact that they can supply a complete range of products in the areas that they are active in. These are what they call the three main areas of foundry operation: (1) The melting platform – the melting of metal, the treatment of metal to the desired composition and the transfer of metal to the point of casting; (2) The moulding and core shop – the preparation of moulds and cores into which the metal is poured and (3) The feeding and gating area – feeding and gating systems.
Foseco supplies ferrous and non-ferrous foundries as well as investment casting facilities, with a wide range of refractories. Uniquely, Foseco is the only supplier who can offer a full range of foundry products and services to iron, steel, aluminium, magnesium, copper and other non-ferrous foundries world-wide.
Key products include:
Feeding systems: insulating and exothermic insulating feeder sleeves and direct pour technology
Foam filters: for iron, steel and non-ferrous castings
Metal treatment: products and equipment for the improvement of the mechanical properties of non-ferrous castings
Coatings: for jobbing and production iron, speciality coatings for ferrous and non-ferrous foundries
Melt shop refractories: for the handling and transfer of molten metal, refractory systems for induction furnaces
Metal treatment: stoppers, nozzles, inoculants, metal treatment equipment and other treatment products for ferrous foundries
Binders: self and gas setting binder systems, sodium silicates, additives, glues, sealants and release agents for ferrous and non-ferrous foundries
“I look forward to fostering the company culture of high-performance, quality products and service. Foseco have been established in South Africa for 22 years and have a strong reputation to uphold. I am following some big names in the industry and I hope to lead with humility and take the company to new heights.”
For further details contact Foseco South Africa on TEL: 011 903 9500 or visit www.foseco.com