Coega industry zone lines up investors

The success of the Coega industrial development zone in luring investors has led to its decision to expand its land area by about 63% to 18000ha.

Coega Development Corporation (CDC) CEO Pepi Silinga said at the weekend that an in- principle agreement had been signed to acquire 7000ha of land from PPC. The purchase price is not being disclosed at this stage.

“At the rate at which we are growing we might run out of space in 10 years,” Silinga said in an interview. The land acquisition would eliminate profiteering on land and allow the CDC to benefit from the projected growth in land prices.

In the year to March, the Coega industrial development zone succeeded in almost meeting its target of securing 10 new investors, bringing in nine for the year. These included the R20bn Alcan smelter, and investments by Dynamic Commodities’ fruit sorbet facility (R50m); Cerebos’ salt production plant (R85m), Biomass Pellets (R70m); an automotive components manufacturer (R50m); a precast products manufacturer (R50m); and three logistics projects with a combined value of R180m.

Another target of 10 new investors had been set for the current financial year.

About R28bn has been invested in or committed to the zone which should see about 9000 workers on site by the end of next year as construction of the Alcan smelter, port infrastructure and other projects gets under way.

CDC spokeswoman Vuyelwa Qinga-Vika said lease agreements would also be signed on completion of environmental impact assessments for a $20bn agro-processing project by SeaArk; a R1,1bn thin strip mill investment from Germany; and a R5,8bn joint venture by Chemicals Industries Far East Limited of Singapore and South African empowerment partners in a chlorine refinery and desalination plant.

The chemical plant is to be officially launched next Monday by Singaporean President Sellapan Ramanathan during his state visit to SA. Construction was due to begin in June, Qinga-Vika said.

Another major project in the pipeline is the plan by Russian company Renova to construct a ferroalloys smelter to process Kalahari manganese.