Pretoria - Toyota South Africa has entered into a public-private partnership with the KwaZulu-Natal government and eThekwini Municipality towards the establishment of a multimillion-rand automotive suppliers' park in Durban.
A goal of the partnership is to grow Toyota SA's production capacity and economic role in the region.
The site for the proposed park is a few kilometres from Toyota SA's assembly plant in Prospecton, with an import parts storage warehouse and pressing and welding facility for the motor manufacturer occupying at least a third, or 30ha, of the park.
Zweli Mkhize, KwaZulu-Natal's finance and economic development minister, said the project had generated unprecedented interest among local and international component suppliers, which wanted to establish themselves in the proposed park.
It would help increase component supplies to Toyota SA by KwaZulu-Natal suppliers from 47 percent to 65 percent by 2007.
At least 13 suppliers had already made commitments to take space in the park, Mkhize said. "It is envisaged that a minimum of 600 jobs will be created ... and the expected turnover of business derived from the 13 suppliers alone would be in the region of R533 million a year and R1 billion in the long term."
Mkhize last month led trade missions to Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea. Among the supplier companies visited in Japan were Toyota Gosei, Toyota Boshoku, Toyota Tsusho and Denso, all of which had a long history of supplying parts to Toyota and were interested in establishing a presence in Durban, he said.
Henry Pretorius, the senior vice-president product development and procurement at Toyota SA, said that although Toyota Japan supported the idea of localised component supplies, its Durban facility relied heavily on components supplied by manufacturers in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.
Pretorius said successful localisation meant just-in-time delivery and low-cost logistics. The Durban park would have positive benefits for the province while ensuring that Toyota retained pole position in the industry.
Mkhize said the park project reflected the province's industrial development strategy, which had identified the automotive sector as one of the economic priorities.
The visit to Japan had illustrated the overall multiplier impact the supplier park would have on the province's economy, especially the City of eThekwini, Mkhize said.
"The government and its social partners are determined to make this project a reality by investing not only in the provision of infrastructure for the establishment of the park, but also to encourage technical skills development to ensure local people gain sustainable employment or become supplier partners with Toyota South Africa."
The first automotive supplier park was built in Rosslyn near Pretoria about two years ago with about R200 million committed by Blue IQ, the development arm of the Gauteng government.
Construction of the R394 million Nelson Mandela Bay logistics park commenced in April this year with funding provided by the Nelson Mandela Metropole while another automotive supplier park is planned for the industrial development zone (IDZ) in East London.