Motor Industry: Great leap into SA
Huge Chinese investment - but others are not so confident
Two significant foreign vehicle brands players have expressed very different views on SA’s attractiveness as a manufacturing base for Africa and beyond.Last week, Chinese motor company Beijing Automotive Industry Co (BAIC) laid to rest doubts about its previously stated commitment to the SA market when executives turned the first sod at a new 48ha vehicle assembly plant in the Coega industrial development zone, near Port Elizabeth.The R11bn venture, in which SA’s Industrial Development Corp (IDC) is a 35% partner, is expected to start producing vehicles in 2018 and will eventually have annual capacity for up to 100 000 cars and bakkies.A day after the Coega ceremony, however, Datsun’s global head, Vincent Cobee, poured cold water on the idea that his Nissan-owned car brand could also begin production in SA, by saying the "time and circumstances" were not right for such a decision.The BAIC investment will happen in two phases. The first, costing R4.2bn, will take production capacity ...
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