Mpumalanga Business 2019/20 edition

SPECIAL FEATURE
Other technology parks in the pipeline are the
Petro-Chemical Industrial Technology Park (Govan
Mbeki Municipality), Mining and Metal Industrial
Park (eMalahleni Municipality) and the Agricultural
Industrial Park in Mbombela.
A major government-led initiative in Mpumalanga
is the Nkomazi SEZ which boasts geographic and
logistical advantages and opportunities, given
its proximity to the Mozambique border and the
Mozambican port of Matola. Located in the town
of Komatipoort, the SEZ will provide access to
Mpumalanga’s neighbouring provinces Gauteng
and Limpopo and the neighbouring states of
Eswatini and Mozambique.
An agri-hub within the SEZ will deal with the
whole value chain from growing fruit through
to processing, marketing and logistics. Having
manufacturing facilities at the core of the hub will
enable a variety of businesses to be established, both
upstream (to supply the plant) and downstream (to
deal with the products of the plant).
Highveld Industrial Park
An excellent example of a private initiative in the
field of generating growth through the intelligent
use of property is the Highveld Industrial Park in
eMalahleni.
Now a thriving industrial park, the site had
been home to Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium.
When that company went into business rescue the
property was repurposed as an industrial park.
Tenants have reacted enthusiastically to the
new offering. The number of tenants grew by
mid-2019 to over 40, having just topped 20 in early
2018. Tenants include a training centre funded by
the Construction Sector Education and Training
Authority (CETA), several engineering concerns and
a mining equipment refurbishment company.
The property’s developers were able to
leverage all the advantages of the steel company’s
site, which is well located in terms of its access
to the industrial heartlands of two provinces,
Mpumalanga and Gauteng. Two iron plants and a
steel plant offer fully-equipped metallurgical and
steel-making facilities, supported by environmental
monitoring services and metallurgical and chemical
laboratories.
In addition, there are good rail and utility
connections, water supply and purification facilities
and a ready supply of gas from several sources. Sasol
operates in Mpumalanga and supplies methane-rich
natural gas, while industrial gas producers African
Oxygen and Air Liquide both have plants on the
premises.
In 2019 Novo Energy opened a natural-gas
compression facility within the park. Fed by the
Sasol natural-gas pipeline, the plant operates all
day, every day and supplies natural gas via its fleet
of trucks to customers in a wide variety of sectors.
Highveld Industrial Park has many types of
workshops, storage areas and offices, together with
canteens, parking areas, change rooms and a clinic.
MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2019/20
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