South Africa’s trade and industry minister Ebrahim Patel recently welcomed the R50 million investment by BFG Africa Rail in an advanced manufacturing facility in Gauteng. BFG Africa is a subsidiary of a multinational company in Bahrain specialising in manufacturing composite products and one of the top five global suppliers of advanced composite material.

The company has set up BFG Africa Rail in South Africa to supply composite products to the Passenger Rail Agency South Africa (PRASA).

Patel said the investment will result in a state-of-the-art composite manufacturing facility which boasts improved engineering processes using advanced technologies, according to a report in a South African newspaper.

The investment in Germiston will also include training that benefits skills development for workers that have been trained at the international operations, to ensure manufacturing efficiencies in the newly-established plant.

The advanced composite products coming out of this new factory will find applications in the rail, renewable, defence and other sectors. The scale of the investment will enable the company to achieve production capacity that will meet South African requirements as well as exports into the sub-Saharan markets.

Import substitution will lead to 76 per cent of the components being built in South Africa at this plant. (DS)