TOP AMERICAN CONCRETE INSTITUTE EXECUTIVES VISIT SA

By Jan de Beer on behalf of the Cement and Concrete SA (CCSA)

Top executives of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) recently paid a short visit to South Africa to meet with Cement and Concrete SA (CCSA) management to reconfirm the International Partnership ACI holds with the SA body.

Dr Charles Nmai, ACI President, and Bernie Pekor, ACI Director: International Business Development, held discussions with Bryan Perrie, CEO of CCSA, and Hanlie Turner, Business Development Manager of CCSA.

ACI, one of the world’s leading concrete associations, was founded in 1904. The non-profit technical society and standards-developing organisation has as mission to “develop and disseminate consensus-based knowledge on concrete and its uses”. The ACI headquarters are in Michigan, USA, and it has an international office in Dubai, UAE, as well as regional offices in California, Illinois, and Maryland. Globally, ACI has a membership of over 30 000 and a student membership of about 15 000. In addition, globally, ACI has 93 chapters, over 250 student chapters, and 64 international partners.

Hanlie Turner, Business Development Manager of CCSA, says CCSA is one of the International Partners of ACI. “This valuable collaboration substantially promotes global concrete excellence by making the technical expertise of each organisation available to fellow partners through publications, meetings, conferences, internet links, committee membership, certification activities, and other activities. Some benefits for CCSA include members having complimentary access to selected ACI publications via CCSA’s Information Centre. In addition, the winners of CCSA’s prestigious biennial Fulton Awards were last year entered into the ACI Awards for Excellence, as will the winners of the Fulton Awards winners in 2024,” Turner states.

After his visit to South Africa, ACI President, Dr Nmai, said the ACI discussions with CCSA had covered “a myriad of topics”, including sustainability, concrete industry productivity, and dissemination of concrete knowledge. He congratulated CCSA on the publication of the 10th edition of the globally acclaimed concrete reference book, Fulton’s Concrete Technology, and said that Cement & Concrete SA has a key role to play in helping to advance the quality of concrete construction in Africa.