Fortune-500 company, First Automobile Works (FAW), on Tuesday broke ground on its new truck assembly plant in the Coega industrial development zone (IDZ), just outside Port Elizabeth, with production scheduled to start at the end of 2013, reports Engineering News.
Production capacity would be 5 000 medium- and heavy-commercial vehicles a year.
The FAW investment was valued at R600-million, with R200-m earmarked for plant construction and equipment, and R400-m to start up and run the facility over the next few years, said FAW group vice-president Jin Yi.
The trucks were destined for the local market as well as a number of African countries, with FAW sales in Africa currently at roughly 20 000 units a year, said FAW SA MD Richard Leiter.
No specific sales data was available for FAW in South Africa.
The Coega plant would not serve as a production base for all of Africa, but only for a number of key markets, such as Angola, Leiter added.