Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel
Photo by: Duane Daws
South Africa’s State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has indicated that it and the BAIC Automotive Group, of China, will announce details of a new multibillion-rand motor vehicle manufacturing plant in Eastern Cape later this month.
The development financier will host its annual results presentation at the Coega Industrial Development Zone, near Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape, on August 30. It will use the occasion to unveil plans for automotive investment.
In April, the IDC and BAIC signed a ‘Joint Development Agreement’, earmarking the Eastern Cape as the proposed location for a new automobile plant.
Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel indicated at the time that the IDC and BAIC hoped to finalise feasibility studies that would “enable the plant to complete construction by 2018”.
Should the investment proceed, Patel said it would be the first new light-passenger-vehicle assembly plant to be built in South Africa in more than 40 years, with an initial capacity to produce about 50 000 cars, trucks and sports utility vehicles.
BAIC is a State-owned entity and the holding company for several brands, including Beijing Automobile Works.