SA boat builder expands in China
Leading South African boat builder Robertson & Caine has entered a joint venture agreement with Chinese company Flying Eagle to manufacture its sail and power catamarans in China, Cape Business News reported on Friday.
According to the business publication, Robertson & Caine's (R&C;'s) first international manufacturing venture is set to increase the company's production five-fold within five years.
R&C; director Ellian Perch told Cape Business News that the Chinese factory, together with company's Cape Town facility, would be producing boats at the rate of 700 to 800 a year by 2013.
He said the Chinese government had embraced the opportunity to cater for a booming global leisure market, and had already allocated land for the project in Fuyang City near Hang Zhou, one of China's largest cities.
Cape Business News also reports that the City of Cape Town has given R&C; the green light to build a second local shipyard in Atlantis, half an hour's drive out of Cape Town, to add to its base in Woodstock.
The company considered Ireland for its new manufacturing base before settling on Atlantis. Perch said the planned 200 000m² yard would boost R&C;'s production from 120 boats a year in 2006 to 350 by 2010, while creating creating new jobs for around 700 "highly skilled" people.
R&C;, which launched almost 100 luxury catamarans in 2006, added a new model Powercat - the Leopard 47 PC - to its impressive list last year.
And according to a report in the Cape Argus newspaper, Gino Morelli, "one of the world's foremost multi-hulled boat designers", is to join R&C; this month.
Morelli, who designed the yacht that won the America's Cup for the US in 1987, told Cape Argus that what had impressed him most, when weighing up the viability of R&C;'s expansion in the Western Cape, was the high level of skills in the region.
"There were many factors in Ireland's favour, but ultimately it made the most financial sense to build the new facility in Atlantis," Morelli said.
SAinfo reporter
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