The football stadiums that will showcase South Africa in 2010, and the country's massive transport and power infrastructure spending, are the most often cited factors in creating a buoyant market for steel.
But they are by no means the only drivers. In fact, the public sector is estimated to account for only about 20 percent of steel purchases.
If further proof is required of strong demand from the private sector, one need look only at Argent's strong financial performance.
This small listed company operates a steel merchant business, Phoenix Steel, that supplies the product to steel-related businesses in its stable. These businesses make products ranging from portable barbecues to security doors to automotive components.
Argent's projected sales growth between financial 2006, when revenue reached the R1 billion mark, and 2009, when the company says it will "comfortably" hit R2 billion in sales, is impressive.
Sales for the year to March came in at R1.3 billion, a 30 percent increase over the previous year (and ahead of the 26 percent growth in South African sales of carbon steel products in 2006). Chief executive Treve Hendry is optimistic Argent will rake in at least R1.75 billion in sales this year.
Hendry and his team have placed the business in a solid position to benefit from strong demand. Management expects Argent to increase its market share across "just about all" divisions.
The company has recently embarked on an acquisition programme, snapping up four businesses for about R120 million, including a manufacturer of steel office furniture and a merchant of stainless steel and aluminium, whose geographical overlap with Phoenix Steel offers great potential for synergies.
Argent's integrated business model has reaped dividends and looks set to continuing doing so.
NET1 News out on Monday that the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) plans to install a multimillion-rand electronic payment system has given some in the industry a real sense of déjà vu.
A similar system was launched about seven years ago but failed to make any impact. The company that implemented the system then was Net1, which lost about R30 million in the process. The system would have allowed commuters to pay their taxi fares using smart cards.
This week Net1 announced that it had been appointed to implement a central payment system in Ghana and provide a range of smart card-based financial products.
According to Net1 chief executive Serge Balamant, the system was implemented in Johannesburg, on the Johannesburg-Pretoria route and for surrounding areas in Pretoria.
At the time, Net1 said it had just finished linking about 75 taxis with the new system, but then a bombshell was dropped on the company: the Gauteng government demanded that the system be suspended as it wanted it to be part of the planned taxi recapitalisation programme. Net1 sued the provincial government and won the case. It was paid R300 000 as a settlement.
Balamant said it took the company about three years to convince taxi operators that the system would, among other things, bring efficiency.
He said Net1 was not aware of the new plans. It would like to be involved - but only if there was agreement between the taxi owners, drivers and the unions. If such an agreement was not in place, the plans might backfire again.
Santaco is expected to start a pilot project in Gauteng next month.
So it remains to be seen whether the plans will be implemented. But judging by the pace things are done in the transport industry, there is a very good chance that the 2010 target may not be met.
JOBS The extent to which the South African economy has created jobs is debatable.
Often, for one reason or the other, politicians bandy around some figure running into more than 1 million for the past two years.
But a look at the recent quarterly employment survey (QES) from Statistics SA shows that between December 2004 and September last year, the economy created about 240 000 jobs in the formal non-agricultural sectors.
According to Danelee van Dyk, an economist at Standard Bank, the conclusion is that South Africa's production is capital intensive, at least in the formal sector. But she adds that the informal sector may be absorbing more people, and this needs to be measured.
It will be interesting to find out how many people are employed by the small companies and entities that will come on to the radar screen of the SA Revenue Service under its tax amnesty.
But using a rule of thumb, based on the dramatic increase in the number of small enterprises coming forward before the June 30 deadline, there is little doubt that what has been called the informal sector may be a big source of employment.
The latest QES showed that the economy added 17 000 jobs in the quarter to March. But some economist feel the quarterly surveys may not be representative enough. Compared with the quarter to December, in which 98 000 jobs were added, this looks modest.
Dennis Dykes, the chief economist at Nedbank, says the best indicator on the employment front is the labour force survey. "I would be a little hesitant to draw a conclusion," he adds.
But what ever the conclusion, it is clear that the economy is creating non-agriculture formal sector jobs, albeit at a sluggish pace.
Van Dyk says that slow as the pace may be, there is an indication that new entrants are taking up these "quality" jobs.
n With contributions by Ingi Salgado, Thabiso Mochiko and Tonny Mafu