There is much opportunity in South Africa to expand local manufacturing and innovation, and this should be pursued through greater collaboration within the business community, delegates attending an industry collaboration workshop, hosted by DuPont in collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in Pretoria, heard on Wednesday.

The workshop followed a local content programme within the textiles cluster, where “significant opportunities” for the transfer of technology were identified.  

The workshop built on the theme of enhancing local manufacturing – both for local consumption and to build businesses in the country that can increase their export potential.

DuPont is already well established and contributes considerably to the country and the company wants to further opportunities for local businesses using its expertise and experience, said DuPont Europe, Middle East and Africa president Pierrick Le Gallo.

The company says there are many opportunities for South African business, especially within its refreshed DuPont portfolio, which spans multiple industries.

The company is currently listed on the NYSE as DowDuPont, and as of June 1 next year, will be separated into three companies: Dow, DuPont and Corteva.

Following this, DuPont will focus on speciality products.

DuPont has been able to grow significantly as a result of its product portfolio aligning with future megatrends shaping the world; this serves as an example for South African businesses to mirror.  

These trends encompass healthy living and lifestyle; connectivity and mobile; safety; sustainability; electronic convergence; biotechnology acceleration; and digital.

DuPont provides products that cater to these; for example, health and fitness monitoring devices for the healthy living trend.

While this positions the company well in the market, Gallo emphasised the need to constantly innovate and develop new technologies.

The company is pursuing a number of technological innovations, such as advances in clean water, health food, biomaterials and automotive electrification, to name a few.

Therefore, he indicated that there is much scope for South African businesses’ innovations to be supported and expanded by DuPont and other companies that have the capacity to support local consumption; and then these can be exported to the rest of the world.

There is also scope for a model whereby certain components for manufacturing are imported, but the majority of materials and work are locally sourced.