Sheffield steel firm plays a winner by raising the roof at Soccer City

HIGH above the football fans blowing their vuvuzelas at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg is a piece of Yorkshire

engineering which showcases the best of the region's steel industry.

The steel bars that are used to support the roofs of both Soccer City and Mbombela Stadium were made by Sheffield-based Macalloy.

The company specialises in manufacturing steel bars for major civil and building projects worldwide, such as airport terminals, ports and harbours and bridges.

Although Macalloy's efforts in South Africa didn't result in free World Cup tickets, managing director Peter Hoy has viewed his firm's handiwork from the comfort of his sofa.

He said: "I've been watching the games and you do tend to find yourself looking at the stadium rather than the football – but when England were playing, that was probably more entertaining anyway.

He added: "It would have been nice to be invited to the World Cup as a supplier but it doesn't work like that."

Macalloy, which has a turnover of more than 13m and a 76-strong workforce, has weathered the economic turmoil better than many other construction companies.

With contracts for international airports and World Cup stadia, it has been business as usual for the firm, which has increased its export earnings by 124 per cent in 58 countries over the last six years.

It's this growth which enabled the company to win its second Queen's Award for international trade this year.

The Middle East provided one of the biggest export markets for the firm's steel bars, including Terminal 3 at Dubai Airport which opened in 2008.

But Mr Hoy said the slowdown in the Dubai economy has had an impact on the company this year.

"As things in Dubai have started to slow down, clearly we haven't been quite as busy as previously but we have managed to escape most of the problems that most companies have had.

"We are a niche manufacturer and also more than 80 per cent of our turnover is abroad so when the UK growth slowed down we found our increases in overseas markets."

Airports, bridges and international sporting stadia form the main part of the company's workload so it was a blow for the company when it missed out on contracts for the London 2012 Olympics because the infrastructure will use precast concrete instead of steel bar technology.

The firm has also been hit by the cancellation of UK hospital construction projects.

But Mr Hoy remains optimistic and plans to further expand overseas into Saudi Arabia and South America.

He said: "Currently there is a lot of growth around Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar as people look for the next level of business.

"Brazil is another key target at the moment – with the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics."

He added: "We have been looking at the way we work overseas and revisited our routes to market to try to get local people working for us in local markets. That has paid dividends.

"We have also invested in improving the language skills of our staff and developed new products including stronger tie bars to improve our current product range."

Macalloy, previously known as McCalls Special Products, was founded in 1921 and has been at the vanguard of steel bar technology.

In 1948 it pioneered the Macalloy steel bar which became the industry standard in the reinforced concrete market.

Mr Hoy led a management buyout from Wiltshire-based Meade Corporation in 2003.

The acquisition was financed with a 100,000 loan from the South Yorkshire Investment Fund, debt from the Bank of Scotland and equity from Corus' regeneration subsidiary UK Steel Enterprise.

In 2006, the company relocated to new purpose-built headquarters in Dinnington, Sheffield, which enabled it to enter new markets throughout the world.

Macalloy: The story so far

Macalloy, formally known as McCalls Special Products, was founded in 1921 by TH McCall, EL Raworth and CW Hamilton.

In the early years the company supplied the rapidly expanding reinforced concrete trade with steel rods and bars.

In the decades that followed, McCalls developed services in cutting bars to length, bending, straightening and designing reinforced bar products for concrete structures. It developed the first post tensioning system in 1947.

In the 1980s, Sir Norman Foster designed the Renault distribution centre in Swindon, using Macalloy's tension structure system.

The building went on to win numerous international awards and it began a trend in wide span structural design.

In August 2003, the directors of the business carried out a management buyout and in 2006 relocated the company to new headquarters in Dinnington, Sheffield.