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OVERVIEW<br />
Manufacturing<br />
Boatbuilders are busy.<br />
SECTOR INSIGHT<br />
Hayden Cobra cars are on the<br />
road again.<br />
The need for security at sea is driving demand among<br />
boatbuilders. Patrol vessels for the South African Navy<br />
are being produced by Damen Shipyards <strong>Cape</strong> Town<br />
and Paramount Maritime Holdings is busy with orders for<br />
vessels to protect other ships from pirates in the Gulf of Guinea.<br />
Bloomberg reported in 2021 that the subsidiary of the<br />
Paramount Group was building 26 boats for a combined value<br />
of $60-million. The keel-laying ceremony for the third Multi-<br />
Mission Inshore Patrol Vessels (MMIPV) that Damen Shipyards was<br />
contracted to deliver to the Navy was held in October 2021.<br />
Invest <strong>Cape</strong> Town reports that the city’s boatbuilding industry is<br />
the second-largest producer of recreational catamarans in the world,<br />
after France. The city’s companies export 80% of the products that<br />
they produce and attract a positive trade balance of approximately<br />
$73-million annually. Boatbuilding exports have grown by 20.5%<br />
annually year-on-year since 2014 in <strong>Cape</strong> Town (Quantec, 2019).<br />
Robertson & Caine’s facility in Woodstock produces three boats a<br />
week for the international market. With a staff complement of 1 350,<br />
the company is a leader in power catamarans and sailing catamarans.<br />
Nautic Africa makes larger vessels, including patrol, defence, oil and<br />
gas platform and commercial vessels while companies such as Smit<br />
Amandla Marine and De Beers Marine offer a wide range of services. The<br />
Whisper Boat Building Academy is located at the False Bay TVET College.<br />
The Manufacturing and Competitiveness Enhancement<br />
ONLINE RESOURCES<br />
<strong>Cape</strong> Clothing and Textile Cluster: www.capeclothingcluster.org.za<br />
Invest <strong>Cape</strong> Town: www.investcapetown.com<br />
Wesgro: www.wesgro.co.za<br />
<strong>Western</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> Maritime Cluster: www.wcmc.org.za<br />
Programme (MCEP) of the<br />
Department of Trade, Industry<br />
and Competition (the dtic)<br />
has disbursed grants which<br />
have resulted in 230 000 jobs<br />
being sustained. Because<br />
of the Clothing and Textile<br />
Competitiveness Programme,<br />
that sector currently now<br />
employs around 95 000<br />
workers, contributing 8% to<br />
manufacturing GDP and 2.9% to<br />
overall GDP. In the leather sector<br />
22 new factories have been<br />
opened, supporting 2 200 jobs.<br />
In the <strong>Western</strong> <strong>Cape</strong>, this<br />
revival is reflected in member<br />
companies of the <strong>Cape</strong> Clothing<br />
and Textile Cluster hiring 35%<br />
more staff in four years. About<br />
23 600 people are employed in<br />
the province and exports from<br />
the <strong>Cape</strong> amounted in 2017 to<br />
R4.4-billion with sales up by<br />
34% above inflation.<br />
A new investor has breathed<br />
new life into the manufacturing<br />
business of Hayden Cobra<br />
(pictured). The maker of<br />
replica cars is operating out<br />
of Montague Gardens and<br />
building for the local and export<br />
markets, primarily the US and<br />
the Middle East. Three models<br />
are manufactured: the Classic<br />
427, the Evo and a Cobra with<br />
an electric drive which promises<br />
“instantaneous torque”. ■<br />
WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS <strong>2022</strong><br />
36
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