Iscor, with its first works in Pretoria built by the German Demag, was established as a state company in terms of the Iron and Steel Industry Act, No.
For the immediate war needs it was decided to begin by building a plate rolling mill planned in such a way that it could later form part of a large integrated steelworks.
There was sufficient slope for drainage towards the river and the area was downstream from the Rand Water Board's pumping station intake.
The heavy industries could be suitably sited on relatively high ground in a position where the prevailing winds would minimise the dangers of pollution.
Directly after World War II, it was decided to build a fully integrated steel works at Vanderbijlpark, and a start was made on this early in 1947.
Large extensions were added; older plants modernised to supply higher quality and value-added products such as electrolytic tinplate for the canning and beverage industries.
Newcastle, as a border area with an adequate supply of labour, and with the Amcor ironworks that could be taken over to save on initial capital costs as well as to provide an outlet for the iron which was at that time being exported to Yawata in Japan ( the contract for which was to expire shortly), was therefore chosen.
Further factors were that Newcastle was situated on main rail and road routes between Johannesburg and Durban, essential services such as water and electricity were already well catered for, and the town had a basic established infrastructure with a settled community.
It was decided that both profile and flat products would be catered for in a plant with an ultimate capacity of 8 million tons per annum of liquid steel.
The world steel industry entered a crisis period during the end of the 1970s and early 1980s with the widespread recession, which occurred at that time.
The company did a reasonably good job of the first task, although it became less efficient in the 1970s as it responded less to market pressures than to the political directives of the government of the day.