Coega eyes huge investments
3 December 2004
The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) is involved in talks with over 50 potential investors in South Africa's new industrial development complex and deepwater port in the Eastern Cape, with anticipated investments worth over R20-billion.
The Coega Project, comprising an industrial development zone and deepwater port 20 kilometres east of the city of Port Elizabeth, is the single largest infrastructure development project in the country since 1994.
CDC CEO Pepi Silinga told journalists at a year-end briefing this week that he was confident that at least one investor would be on board by 2005.
Development at the zone, being developed at a cost of R7-billion, is far advanced, with road infrastructure, a construction village and a recruitment and training centre already in place - and the new deepwater port of Ngqura expected to be operational by the end of 2005.
"The Coega industrial development zone is open for business", Silinga
said.
Kelly Byrne, Coega acting executive for enterprise development, said the CDC was in talks with 56 potential investors in the project. "Talks with these investors are in various stages of negotiation, with the majority of them interested in the ferro metal sector", Byrne said in a statement.
He said the anticipated investments would be worth over R20-billion - and projected investments of up to R1 000-billion over the next three to four decades.
Investments in the pipeline, Byrne told Business Day, include:
- A R12-billion aluminium smelter. This has been under negotiation for several years. Canadian firm Alcan is expected to announce a final decision on its involvement in this project by the end of 2005. The government has also been in talks
with Brazilian mining company CVRD regarding its possible involvement in the project.
- A R2-billion liquefied natural gas power station. Byrne told Business Day that an environmental impact study would begin in 2005, and that the project could be operational by 2009.
- A new vehicle assembly plant. European and Indian manufacturers were exploring this possibly, Business Day reported.
- An Indian company is interested in setting up a plant to convert scrap steel into steel billets.
- Other projects under consideration, according to Business Day, include iron ore and manganese handling and beneficiation facilities, and a dry dock for ship repairs.
And according to Coega, a memorandum of understanding with all the major participants involved in the construction of a ferro-nickel smelter could be in place by early 2005.
The CDC's Peter Inman says negotiations are under way for the supply of 3-million tons of nickel annually. "Excellent
progress has been made - we have been speaking to everyone who is anyone in nickels", Inman said.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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