Verified
Hulamin Limited sits in the middle of South Africa’s aluminium chain. It buys primary aluminium, mainly from South32’s smelter, and turns it into two families of semi-finished products: rolled products such as can stock and foil, and extruded profiles. Packaging, engineering, automotive and construction manufacturers then shape those products into finished goods.
- Registered name
- Hulamin Limited
- Type
- Private company (aluminium semi-fabrication)
- Fields funded
- Engineering and technical fields linked to aluminium rolling and extrusion
- Website
- hulamin.com
- Phone
- +27 33 395 6911
A 75-year-old manufacturer in Pietermaritzburg
The company says it has been in business for more than 75 years and employs over 1 800 people, which makes it one of the larger manufacturers in KwaZulu-Natal. More than half of its sales are in South Africa, and the rest are exported through a local sales office and a network of international agents. A casthouse in Richards Bay helps secure the aluminium slab its rolling mills need.
Hulamin runs its plants to a stack of international standards, including ISO 9001 for quality, ISO 22000 for food safety, ISO 14001 for the environment and ISO 45001 for health and safety, and it is working towards ISO 50001 for energy management. For engineering students, that means exposure to tightly controlled, audited production.
From Alcan’s sales office to Hulamin
Hulamin traces its origins to 1935, when Aluminium Limited of Canada (Alcan) opened a sales office in South Africa. The first rolling mill opened on the current Pietermaritzburg site in 1949. Huletts Corporation bought control from Alcan in 1974 and renamed the business Huletts Aluminium, and it later became Hulett Aluminium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tongaat Hulett. In 1996 the boards approved a R2.4 billion expansion that quadrupled the rolling mill’s annual capacity.
Recycling has been part of the operation from the start, first of its own process scrap and customers’ offcuts. Hulamin expanded its recycling facility in 2015, just as South African beverage cans were switching from steel bodies to all-aluminium cans, which the company says can be back on shelves as new cans in as little as 60 days.
How Hulamin says it develops people
Hulamin’s careers pages set out a written career philosophy rather than a list of perks. It aims to build a workforce that can match its best international competitors, and it states that special interventions are needed to correct the effects of historical disadvantage in the South African workforce.
The company treats career development as a shared responsibility: employees drive their own careers, while the company is expected to create the conditions for learning and promotion. It points to long-serving staff who have risen to senior leadership as evidence of that approach.
Hulamin bursary information
Hulamin’s own website did not show an open bursary call when we checked in September 2026, so treat the programme described in our bursary guide as the most recent available information rather than a confirmed 2027 intake. Check the careers section of hulamin.com, or contact the company, before you apply.
Metallurgy and materials students interested in similar manufacturing careers can compare our metallurgy bursaries page.
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