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Eastern Cape Business 2018 edition

  • Text
  • Mandela
  • Water
  • Electrical
  • Services
  • Financial
  • Municipal
  • Infrastructure
  • Water
  • Manufacturing
  • Sectors
  • Tourism
  • Energy
  • Development
  • Industrial
  • Business
  • Investment
  • Nedbank
  • Provincial
A unique guide to business and investment in the Eastern Cape. The 2018 edition of Eastern Cape Business is the 11th issue of this highly successful publication that, since its launch in 2006, has established itself as the premier business and investment guide for the Eastern Cape. The Eastern Cape’s investment and business opportunities are highlighted in this publication. In addition to the regular articles providing insight into each of the key economic sectors of the province, there are special features on the role of the renewable energy sector on the region’s future and on the growth of tourism (spurred by the hosting of international events such as the 2018 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, the first-ever cricket Test match to be played at night at St George’s Park and Vodacom Origins of Golf events at St Francis Links). All of the major business chambers in the province have made contributions to the journal. To complement the extensive local, national and international distribution of the print edition, the full content can also be viewed online at www.easterncapebusiness.co.za. Updated information on the Eastern Cape is also available through our monthly e-newsletter, which you can subscribe to online at www.gan.co.za, in addition to our complementary business-to-business titles that cover all nine provinces as well as our flagship South African Business title.

OVERVIEW Manufacturing

OVERVIEW Manufacturing Clusters are promoting niche manufacturing. SECTOR INSIGHT • First National Battery has the country’s first industrial cell factory. Several cluster development programmes in the Eastern Cape aim to develop specific industries by bringing together expertise and logistical support. Marine manufacturing will be the focus of the Mandela Bay Composites Cluster (MBCC). With funding from the Eastern Cape Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT) and the National Department of Trade and Industry (dti), MBCC will target skills development, innovation in the field of composites and work on improving the value chain and links to the supply chain. A Non-Automotive Manufacturing (NAM) Cluster will concentrate on training, supplier development, energy efficiencies and developing new markets. An Energy Manufacturing Hub is planned for 2018. The dti also offers a Competitiveness Enhancement Programme aimed at medium-sized manufacturers. It includes a cost-sharing grant of between 30% and 50% for investments up to R50-million and up to 80% if a group of smaller companies want to collaborate on matters such as advertising. New and revived industrial parks are an important plank in provincial government policy to promote manufacturing. A new park has been launched in Queenstown, Komani Industrial Park. Seven local small businesses were involved in constructing the facility. Vulindlela Heights Industrial Park (Mthatha) has received security upgrades. The Dimbaza Industrial Park welcomed a new tenant in 2017 in cooler box manufacturer Ikusasa Green. The park has 24 tenants and serves King William’s Town. The provincial government supports diversification. With the automotive sector supplying 30% of manufacturing employment and 32% of manufacturing gross value-added, the province’s economy might be vulnerable to fluctuations in demand for vehicles. The strategy is targeting sectors where the province already has a competitive advantage (such as wool and mohair), is labour intensive, will have a broad impact and has low barriers for SMME entry. Sectors targeted include: agri-processing and food; timber; tourism; construction; chemicals; energy and mariculture. One of South Africa’s most successful manufacturers is Port Elizabeth-based Aspen. The company has 60 businesses in 50 countries and the Port Elizabeth and East London factories play an important role in producing excellent products in bulk. The Port Elizabeth site makes more than 12-billion oral solid dosage forms every year, in addition to more than 25-million units of Murine and Clear Eye eye drops being made for export to the US. The PE complex has four components, covering oral solid, liquid, steriles and niche high-potency pharmaceutical products. First National Battery, a part of the Metair Group, has one factory at Fort Jackson, just outside East London (making plastic components) and two factories in East London: automotive batteries (10 000 per day capacity); industrial batteries (first in South Africa producing industrial cells). Mpact runs two corrugated packaging convertor facilities in the Eastern Cape, at Deal Part in Port Elizabeth and Gately Township, East London. The company recently spent R150- million on doubling capacity at EASTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2018 50

OVERVIEW the Port Elizabeth plant. Mpact has 21 manufacturing sites across Southern Africa. Bodene, a subsidiary of Fresenius Kabi, makes intravenous medicine in Port Elizabeth. East London hosts Johnson & Johnson’s finance, operations and research and development divisions. Swedish concern Fagerhult Group has entered the South African market via an acquisition of the factory of Port Elizabeth’s Lighting Innovations, and the two subsidiary companies Arrow Lighting and Beacon Lighting. Montego Pet Nutrition is Graaff-Reinet’s biggest private employer, with more than 200 staff members working in the Karoo town’s factory. Established in 2000, the company now makes about 200 tons of product daily and supplies more than 1 000 retail outlets across South Africa. There is great potential to create more value from the excellent wool, leather and mohair that the province’s livestock produce. The production and working with merino wool and mohair fibres are skills that have been handed down from generation to generation. A fibre processing plant to spin wool and mohair fibre into yarn is planned, as is a textile mill to focus on cotton, poly-cotton and acrylic fabric. The latter is planned for the IDZ in East London, which is already home to Da Gama Textiles, whose factory has the capacity to produce 45-million square metres of fabric per annum. Da Gama makes the popular and distinctive shweshwe fabric, using its own unique printing process which makes it very difficult for fakers to copy. The BBF Safety Group invested R16-million in a new machine at its Port Elizabeth plant in 2016 which will take shoe production up to 5 000 pairs per day. The injection moulding machine can inject a moulded sole to the shoe upper every 15 seconds. The Lemaitre brand is widely known and used within the mining industry. The BBF Group was formed from a merger of several South African companies, to allow them to specialise and to compete with cheap foreign imports. The companies were Bagshaw Footwear, Beier Safety Footwear, Bronx Safety, United Frams and Wayne. ONLINE RESOURCES Border-Kei Chamber of Commerce: www.bkcob.co.za Coega Development Corporation: www.coega.co.za Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism: www.dedea.gov.za East London Industrial Development Zone: www.elidz.co.za Manufacturing Circle: wwww.manufacturingcircle.co.za National Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers: www.napm.co.za South African Bureau of Standards: www.sabs.ca.za 51 EASTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2018

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