KwaZulu-Natal Business 2019-20 edition

OVERVIEW
Russian brand that has won 14 Dakar rallies, is known for its reliability
in tough conditions. Bell’s intention is to increase the percentage
of local components over time.
Bell is best known for its heavy equipment which is primarily
used in the mining and construction sectors. The listed company
reported a 6% rise in revenue for the six months to June 2018, an
amount of R3.7-billion.
Toyota recently invested a further R6.1-billion into its already
very large plant at Prospecton. The company regularly sells about
a quarter of the vehicles sold in South Africa, and accounts for
the same proportion of export volumes. The Corolla car, the Hilux
bakkie and the Fortuner SUV are manufactured at the plant.
Powerstar, a Chinese state-owned brand, assembles trucks
in Pietermaritzburg on a site formerly used by Super Group.
The companies that make Powerstar in Asia are the China North
Vehicle Corporation (Norinco Motors) and BEIBEN, who produce
about 60 000 heavy-duty commercial duty vehicles every year
at their plant in Inner Mongolia.
Automotive components
KwaZulu-Natal has a substantial and varied automotive components
sector which includes large manufacturers such as Apollo Tyres and
GUD Filters. Thirty-nine companies are currently members of the
Durban Automotive Cluster which is funded by the municipality.
Together, these firms have about 17 000 employees.
In line with the policy of developing Industrial Economic Hubs,
the Durban Automotive Supplier Park is being built at Illovo, south
of Durban and near to the Toyota plant. The Dube TradePort
Corporation will manage the project, which covers 1 013ha. Other
partners are the eThekwini Municipality, Toyota and the provincial
government. The aim is to attract car assembly and component
manufacturing companies.
Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN) estimates that
the province's component automotive manufacturers enjoy a
combined turnover approaching R10-billion.
ONLINE RESOURCES
Automotive Industry Development Centre: www.aidc.co.za
Africa (NAAMSA): www.naamsa.co.za
Durban Automotive Cluster: www.dbnautocluster.org.za
Manufacturers (NAACAM): www.naacam.co.za
National Association of Automotive Component and Allied
National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South
Keeping MAN and Toyota supplied
is the R300-million operation,
Duys Engineering Group.
This diverse group of companies
includes in its business plan the
supply of truck bodies and truck
components and has production
plants at New Germany
(Pinetown) and Richards Bay,
from where it services the mining
industry. Toyota Boshoku
manufactures seats and does
the interior trim on contract for
Toyota.
International company GUD
Filters has a big presence in
the province. Headquartered in
Prospecton, where more than
1 500 people work at one of
its factories, the company has
another plant in Pietermaritzburg
and a distribution centre in
Pinetown that concentrates on
exports.
Indian-owned Apollo Tyres SA
makes Dunlop products at two
large factories in the province:
truck tyres are made in Durban
where 840 workers are employed
and a passenger car tyre plant in
Ladysmith (1160 employees). The
Durban factory devotes 40% of
production to supplying the truck
and earthmoving market. Both
plants make about 25 000 tons of
tyres with half of the passenger
tyres being exported.
The Behr Group (airconditioning
and cooling systems)
has a factory and its headquarters
in Durban. Ramsay Engineering
supplies cross-car beams for BMW
and Ford. Funding was received
from the Industrial Development
Corporation (IDC) to buy new
tool-making technology to make
this possible.
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KWAZULU-NATAL BUSINESS 2019/20