https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Dunnottar train manufacture complex project, South Africa

11th March 2016

By: Creamer Media Reporter

  

Font size: - +

Name and Location
Dunnottar train manufacture complex project, Gauteng, South Africa.

Client
Gibela Rail Transport Consortium, comprising Alstom (61%), Ubumbano Rail (30%) and New Africa Rail (9%).

Project Description
The project involves the construction of 60 000 m2 factory at the Dunnottar industrial complex to manufacture trains for South African State-owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). This is in line with a R51-billion contract to supply 600 new trains over ten years and provide technical support, as well as spare parts over an 18-year period, to the rail agency.

The 70 ha industrial park will include a 36 ha train assembly site, a 10 ha bogie, traction and motor site, and a 25 ha supplier park. The factory will produce 580 coaches and is expected to generate about 33 000 direct and indirect jobs.

The plant will also be equipped with several kilometres of rail network, including a 1.2 km dynamic test track for the testing of completed trains.

The first trains are being manufactured in Brazil, while the remaining 580 units will be assembled at Dunnottar. At its peak, the manufacturing facility will produce 62 trains a year, in line with Alstom’s X’Trapolis Mega commuter train design.

To ensure that the contract’s 65% local-content stipulation is met, the complex will also accommodate local components suppliers.

Value
R1-billion.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Ground was officially broken at the Dunnottar site on March 4, which is being built by the Gibela consortium for the production of new passenger trains for PRASA.

The R1-billion facility, near Nigel, in the Gauteng metropolitan area of Ekurhuleni, is central to delivering on Gibela’s localisation commitments for a R51-billion contract, awarded by PRASA in October 2013.

Under the contract, Gibela will supply 600 X’Trapolis Mega commuter trains over ten years, with the first 20 units being built at an Alstom facility in Lapa, Brazil. Alstom Southern Africa holds 61% of Gibela, with Ubumbano Rail and New Africa Rail owning 30% and 9% respectively.

The remaining 580 units, comprising 3 480 coaches, will be produced at the greenfield South African factory, which will employ 1 500 people at peak and facilitate technical training of about 19 500 people over the coming 20 years. Besides the factory, Gibela is building a 4 000 m2 training centre, which will serve its own needs and those of its suppliers and the broader railways sector.

There is also a proposal for the property, which PRASA is in the process of acquiring, to be developed into a railways manufacturing hub, with space on the 33 ha site having been allocated specifically for a rail-focused supplier park.

Speaking at the official sod turning ceremony on March 4, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters described the factory investment – which faced some initial permitting delays that were resolved in late 2015 – as critical to delivering on government’s rail reindustrialisation vision and stimulating the development of new black industrialists.

Gibela CEO Marc Granger stressed that supplier development and localisation had been embedded into the contract and that the South African-registered company was gearing up to ensure that it could deliver on that commitment.

He noted that 32 domestic suppliers had been integrated into the contract, with locally made seats, doors, cables, luggage racks and stainless steel being used even in the commuter trains assembled in Brazil.

The South African content of the initial units – two of which have been delivered to PRASA’s Wolmerton depot, near Pretoria, for pre-operational testing – stands at about 20%.

However, the goal is to raise local-content levels to above 70% at the peak of the project, with the contract stipulating a minimum level of 65%. A third test train is scheduled for delivery to South Africa during March and all ten Brazilian-made units should be delivered by year-end.

Production of the first South African-made commuter train, comprising six cars, is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2017 and, by the end of 2020, the factory is expected to produce at maximum capacity of two rail cars a day.

“Manufacturing at this level will be a huge industrial challenge, exceeding the kind of performances currently achieved by any of the world’s top train-building plants,” Granger said, noting that it would require 10 000 parts being delivered daily by about 250 local suppliers.

PRASA chairperson Popo Molefe had also said at the ceremony that the Gibela contract was free of the technical and governance problems associated with the notorious Afro 4000 contract, where PRASA had initiated legal proceedings to cancel a R3.5-billion contract awarded to Swifambo Rail Leasing in March 2013 to supply the company with locomotives made by Vossloh Espana.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Construction of the factory was initially expected to start in early 2015, but delays in securing the site resulted in work falling behind schedule.

Contact Details for Project Information
Gibela communications director Pamella Radebe, email pamella.radebe@gibela-rail.com.
Alstom, Linda Huguet, tel +33 1 57 10 42 or email linda.huguet@transport.alstom.com.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

Magni SA
Magni SA

Magni SA is committed to developing the safest Telehandlers available to our customers for underground and surface mining, construction, forestry,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Booyco Electronics
Booyco Electronics

Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.089 0.149s - 159pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now