Johannesburg - Wednesday December 12, 2001
As part of its strategy to better serve South Africa’s burgeoning automotive
industry Trident Steel is investing R105-million in a state-of-the-art
blanking press line at its Rosslyn facility. This will be Trident’s second
press line and adds considerable shaped blanking capacity for the automotive
industry.
Today’s announcement follows the recent announcement by BMW SA of its
R2-billion investment in a new facility in Rosslyn and the announcement by
Toyota of an extensive export programme as from 2002.
Trident, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the listed
construction-related group, Aveng Limited, is the country’s leading domestic
merchant of special and beneficiated steels to the automotive industry.
Trident is positioning itself to become a competitive partner to the
flourishing domestic motor manufacturers.
According to Trident Holdings managing director, Ernie Behr: “The need for
this investment has arisen as a result of the South African motor
manufacturers’ drive to export of world-class cars with complex designs.
These designs have shifted the industry’s demand from rectangular steel
blanks, traditionally used by stamping plants for the production of body
panels of vehicles, to shaped blanks. The investment in the second press
line, which is due to be commissioned in June 2003, has been timed to
co-incide with the launch of new models as from 2003 and 2004.”
Trident aims to support local motor manufacturers in their quest to secure
local production of body panels for the new models. The blanking press line
consists of a cut-to-length line, a 630-ton single action mechanical
blanking press and an automated stacking facility that will enable Trident
to supply the full range of steel blanks required by the automotive
industry.
Mr Behr added that with the weaker Rand, both the local steel industry and
automotive manufacturers were becoming more globally competitive. “This will
enhance our ability to take market share away from imports and provide the
South African automotive industry with a world-class product in support of
their localisation programmes.”
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