Gauteng’s reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse has been enhanced as a number of local and international companies have set up new plants, or expanded capacity at existing plants, in the province. Beer, motor cars, baby-care products and packaging are among the goods to be manufactured at these new facilities, all of which are equipped with the very latest in technology.

Heineken’s first South African brewery kicked into operation in Sedibeng south of Johannesburg in 2009. The 80-hectare facility quickly went beyond original production projections of three million hectolitres per annum. Heineken, which runs the operation jointly with Diageo, is targeting 4.5 million hectolitres. Having a local production facility helped the brewer grow the Amstel and Heineken brands by 25% in the course of 2009. Another factory to start production in 2009 was Procter & Gamble’s nappy facility at Kempton Park in the Ekurhuleni Municipality. This is the company’s first South African plant although the Pampers brand has been active in South Africa for 15 years.

A second production line was added to the R350-million plant in 2010, immediately doubling production capacity. New staff members were sent to Europe for training on the new machinery. This new investment for Procter & Gamble was supported by an investment incentive made available by the national Department of Trade and Industry (the dti).

Kimberly-Clark South Africa has spent R100-million on increasing capacity at its existing Enstra Mill in Springs, which is also in Ekurhuleni. The latest technology has been used to create a flexible premium-tissue converting line. The company is now able to create packs of different sizes and to respond more quickly to the demands of the market. Kimberly-Clark has another factory in Cape Town and employs about 800 people in South Africa. Kimberly-Clark has worked hard on improving energy efficiencies over the years. Electricity consumption is down 24% since 1997 and a 20% reduction has been achieved in the amount of water wasted per ton of tissue produced. Processed waste paper is reused in the tissue manufacturing process.

The largest foreign investor in South Africa, Tata Group, opened its first South African vehicle-assembly plant in Pretoria in August 2011. The size of the investment is R110-million and the plant is able to assemble 3 650 trucks of various sizes in the Tata range in the course of a year.

Incentives from the dti amounted to about R5.9- million and it is possible that further incentives could persuade Tata to convert the plant from an assembly plant into a full-scale production facility. The plant is the company’s first big assembly plant to be developed outside India. Tata’s facility is in the Rosslyn area of Pretoria, where BMW has been making motor cars since 1975. This was the first production facility for the luxury marquee outside of Germany and it has since gone on to make more than 300 000 of the BMW 3 Series.

In 2009, BMW invested a further R2.2-billion in its Rosslyn plant, bringing it up to date with the latest technology and allowing it to compete with every other BMW plant in the world for orders. In the same year, South Africa was awarded the export markets of Korea and Canada. The plant’s capacity has been increased from 50 000 to 87 000 units per year, with about 80% of production being exported. This entails an average of 250 sedans coming off the production line every day. With the number of robots being employed in the body shop increasing from 99 to 149, automation levels have increased to 96%. The South African plant also builds painted BMW 3 Series bodies for export to India and all-wheel-drive vehicles for the Canadian and US markets. In 2011, 3 000 xDrive vehicles will be sold to Canada.

Huge reductions in electricity and gas consumption have been effected at the BMW plant. Instead of using large quantities of gas to heat ovens for the painting of vehicles, a new type of sealant has been introduced that does not need oven heating. Lighting and air conditioning is controlled to ensure that it is not wastefully used during off-peak times.