Production on R18bn export contract begins next year

General Motors to export Hummers from South Africa ED RICHARDSON GENERAL MOTORS has announced its first major export project from the company’s plant in the Eastern Cape since the Americans took control of the former Delta Motor Corporation in 2004. General Motors South Africa (GMSA) will invest R600-million in its existing assembly facility at Struandale, Port Elizabeth, to produce its newly-launched sports utility vehicle, the Hummer H3, for the European, Asian-Pacific, Middle Eastern and African markets. The Port Elizabeth plant will be the only other facility outside of the US to assemble the vehicle, which is a commercial derivative of the well-known Humvee military vehicle. According to GM’s vice-president Latin American, Africa and the Middle East Maureen Kempston-Darkes, the six-year export contract is worth R18-billion. Kempston-Darkes said that production would begin in the last quarter of next year and could ramp-up to 10 000-units a year. Both right-hand and left-hand models will be assembled at the plant. GMSA MD Bob Socia said that the company was bullish about the prospects for the South African economy and for the industry as a whole, saying that it had invested some R1,5-billion since its return to full ownership of the South African operation in 2004.