The Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) has signed new
investment agreements, which bring the total number of signed investors to
eight and investment value to over R3 billion. These investors include
international stakeholders from the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East
and Africa, with the rest being local companies.
All these investors are investing in a variety of fabrication workshops for
steel and other metals, equipment and marine repair facilities, oil
lubricant and fuel plants, as well as specialised engineering services, the
Department of Trade and Industry said on Tuesday, 19 February 2019.
The investors are targeting construction to start between March 2019 and
March 2020, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, said.
ˇ§The investments signal a significant start of establishing new industrial
value chains in and around the Port of Saldanha.
ˇ§The Saldanha Bay IDZ is part of the dti's Special Economic Zones Programme
and is developing into a world-class offshore and maritime hub,ˇ¨ the
Minister said.
Having established most of the major land-based infrastructure and some of
the marine infrastructure, the zoneˇ¦s partnership with Transnet National
Ports Authority has already started some of the design and commercial work
for expanding the infrastructure offering, with additional port facilities.
Minister Davies said the value proposition to the market also included a
free port model for optimal operational ease in a sector where logistics
efficiency and certainty were as valuable as quality engineering services.
ˇ§The Saldanha Bay IDZˇ¦s investment pipeline includes at least five more
investments that are close to conclusion.
ˇ§If these are realised, they will add another R2,4 billion of investment to
the short- and medium-term outlook of the zone. The total investor pipeline
includes around 40 additional interested companies in various stages of
engagement,ˇ¨ the Minister said.
The Western Cape Government and the dti have partnered with the Saldanha Bay
Municipality and larger companies in the West Coast to start building the
ecosystem for localised procurement and small, medium and micro-sized
enterprises support as a result of the opportunities posed by the new value
chains
ˇV Source: SAnews.gov.za |