Mpumalanga Business 2019/20 edition

OVERVIEW
Manufacturing
Government wants to promote township and rural
manufacturing.
SECTOR INSIGHT
FLSmidth has doubled the
size of its Delmas facility.
Mpumalanga has a diverse manufacturing sector. The
Lowveld area supports food and beverage enterprises
and timber processing. Approximately 70% of jobs in the
manufacturing sector are in food and forestry.
Standerton has textile-manufacturing capacity in the form of
Standerton Mills. It is also home to several plants that use local raw
materials: Nestlé has an infant-cereal manufacturing plant, RCL runs
farms in the Carolina district and Early Bird is prominent. McCain and
PepsiCo (Simba) have plants that use the province’s plentiful potato
crop.
TSB Sugar runs two large mills and produces fruit juices through
a subsidiary company. Nelspruit is the centre of the province’s foodprocessing
cluster.
The presence of Ferrometals (a Samancor company) in Emalahleni
means that Mpumalanga is an important place for metals and machinery
manufacturing. It produces charge chrome and is one of the largest
ferrochome plants in the world. Joint ventures such as Crometals (Pty)
Ltd, Poschrome (Pty) Ltd and Elkem Ferroveld operate from the site.
Most manufacturing in the province takes place in the Highveld
where there is access to chrome, steel and coal.
In the course of an upgrade, FLSmidth has also doubled the size of its
Delmas Supercentre to 10 500m².
The company makes equipment
for materials handling and mineral
processing. The centre also hosts a
training facility and handles repairs
for customers.
In Middelburg, Thos Begbie
makes a variety of products at its
heavy engineering works. Graphite
Freezeline Solutions opened a new
graphite facility within the Begbie
property in 2018.
Thos Begbie has announced
an expansion into Zambia, where
it will service and repair furnace
components.
Middelburg-based Columbus
Stainless is a major supplier of
stainless-steel products to the
domestic and international market.
About 25% of the company’s
production is sold domestically.
The Manganese Metal
Company in Nelspruit is the largest
producer of pure electrolytic
manganese metal in the world.
Delta EMD, in the same town, is
one of the biggest producers of
electrolytic manganese dioxide, a
material used in the manufacture
of alkaline batteries.
The chemicals and liquid
fluids complex of Sasol at
Secunda is a vital component of
MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2019/20
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