SPS Blog

Stories, standards and steel.

Quality initiatives, project stories and lessons from the workshop floor, written by the SPS team in Richards Bay and Germiston.

Stacks of carbon steel plate in the Steel Plate Solutions warehouse

How Much Does Steel Plate Weigh?

September 20266 min readGroup

Formula examples, a free steel plate weight calculator and a practical weight table so you can estimate kilograms per plate and total tonnes before you order.

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CNC fibre laser head cutting profiles from a steel plate

September 20268 min

Laser, Plasma or Flame Cutting: Which Method Is Right for Your Steel Plate?

Laser, plasma and flame cutting each have distinct strengths. A practical guide to choosing the right process for your grade, thickness, tolerance and budget.

SPS branded steel plate with quality control sign-off blocks

May 20264 min

SPS In Process Quality Inspection Procedure

How our In Process Quality Inspection Procedure ensures every plate is checked at every stage, and why it's a cornerstone of our journey to ISO 9001 certification.

Bulk cargo vessel docked at port, steel plate imports into South Africa

April 20266 min

What are the implications of the anti-dumping tariffs on the steel plate industry sector in South Africa?

Mark Mitchley unpacks the new anti-dumping duties on imported steel plate, what's affected, and how supply, pricing and the broader SA steel economy are likely to respond.

Gift Lesese operating the 6kW Trace Crimson Fibre Laser at the SPS Germiston branch

February 20262 min

Our 6kW fibre laser machine in Germiston

Our Germiston branch's 6kW Trace Crimson Fibre Laser helps us deliver fast, accurate plate cutting with dependable turnaround times for demanding applications.

Stacked steel plates in a South African stockyard under overhead cranes

March 20256 min

What is the impact of protectionist import tariffs on the downstream steel industry?

Protectionist import duties are pitched as a lifeline for primary steel producers, but who really wins, who loses, and what does it mean for South Africa's downstream steel manufacturing sector?

Tommy Coleman, Operations Director at Steel Plate Solutions

July 20216 min

Paving a successful career: is it luck, right place, right time or plain and simple hard work?

Tommy Coleman, our Operations Director, reflects on the people, opportunities and hard yards that shaped his journey, from trainee accountant to co-founding Steel Plate Solutions.