Mpumalanga Business 2023-24

OVERVIEW
Manufacturing
New sectors are arising from the green economy.
SECTOR INSIGHT
Mpumalanga is home to
multiple steel and timber mills.
COFCO International’s Standerton Mill is the country’s biggest
soy-crushing facility. Credit: COFCO
The assembly of solar-voltaic panels, building bases and towers
for wind turbines and making equipment required for
batteries – these are all areas where there might be potential
for new manufacturing jobs as Mpumalanga’s economy
starts to transition to renewable energy.
Containerised mini-grids are being already being assembled
in the workshops of the Komati Power Station, which was
decommissioned in 2022. Because the site is serviced by the
transmission grid, it will also be converted into a generation site
for 150MW of solar, 70MW of wind and 150MW of storage batteries,
which will create the potential for other manufacturing enterprises
to locate there. Camden Power Station (pictured), near the town of
Ermelo and also scheduled for decommissioning, could be the site
of similar activities.
The Mpumalanga Provincial Government is working with the
Presidential Climate Commission, the Climate Investment Fund and the
World Bank to find ways to diversify the local economy. A key objective
of the Mpumalanga Economic Growth and Development Path
(MEGDP) is to expand the industrial base of the provincial economy.
From steel to chemicals, petroleum and stainless steel to paper and fruit
juice, Mpumalanga makes a wide variety of products. Fuel, petroleum
and chemical production occurs
in the southern Highveld region
clustered around Sasol’s plants.
The Sasol chemicals and liquid
fluids complex at Secunda is a
vital component of Mpumalanga’s
manufacturing sector. Also in the
southern section is the town of
Standerton which hosts several
large manufacturing plants.
Chief among these are a chickenprocessing
facility and two mills,
one for textiles and the other for
crushing soy.
Astral Foods’ Goldi processing
plant has its own breeding
and hatching operation and
a processing capacity of
approximately 1.8-million broilers
per week. The company has won
a court order to compel the local
municipality to supply services
after Astral’s production levels
were disrupted by intermittent
water and electricity supply.
Goldi is the largest employer in
Standerton.
Standerton Mills designs,
manufactures and finishes yarn
and woven industrial fabrics.
The company, which was
established in 1947, integrates
aspects of manufacturing
across a variety of technical
fabrics and yarn, offering a
stand-alone or fully integrated
end-to-end service which
includes designing, spinning,
twisting, weaving and coating.
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