East London’s automotive park makes progress

ANNA COX THE PROJECT to establish an automotive supplier park within the East London Industrial Development Zone is advanced, says IDZ chief executive, Simphiwe Kondlo. The park will potentially be one of four such developments in South Africa and provide both tenants and DaimlerChrysler, which is preparing for production of a new c-class Mercedes, with a world-class logistics and IT platform from which to extract competitive advantages. Kondlo said the concept and early process design of the park within the IDZ would be completed in a few weeks. The Automotive Industry Development Centre, which developed the Automotive Supplier Park in Rosslyn, is currently guiding the establishment of the Nelson Mandela Bay Logistics Park in Uitenhage and developing the logistics concept for the supplier park in the East London IDZ. Dr Paulo Fernandes, AIDC MD, said the AIDC in its role as implementer of government projects and service provider to industry, aimed to ensure that the three supplier parks and Coega contributed significantly to the country’s logistics infrastructure. “The supplier parks do not operate as competitors, but as powerful allies in ensuring quality, cost and delivery efficiencies of South Africa’s manufactured output, with special focus on vehicle assembly and components,” Fernandes said.