Ford puts billions into Tshwane plant
Ford Southern Africa has already spent more than 90% of a R10.3bn investment in its vehicle assembly plant at Silverton, Tshwane, for the launch of a new Ranger bakkie next year, CEO Neale Hill said on Wednesday.
The investment, announced in February, is part of a R15.8bn cash injection into SA by USbased Ford. The R5.5bn balance is being spent on tooling at components suppliers.
The Silverton plant shut down recently for eight weeks so contractors and engineers could reconfigure assembly lines and install new equipment. Plant manager Tim Day said the new layout would “streamline and simplify” the process.
Areas already upgraded include the paint shop, body shop and stamping plant. May said the investment would create almost 1,200 jobs at Silverton
750 at Ford and 440 at on-site components suppliers. It would add a further 10,000 jobs at other suppliers, taking total Ford supply chain employment to about 60,000. The only vehicle to be built at Silverton, the current Ranger model, was launched in 2011 through an R11bn investment programme.
Since then, about 732,000 Rangers were built. Of those, almost 500,000 were exported to more than 100 destinations worldwide. In 2011, the plant’s annual production capacity was 110,000 Rangers. In 2017, that was increased to 168,000. With the latest improvements, the new capacity is 200,000. Last week, Silverton returned to three-shift production, working 24 hours a day, five days a week, for the first time since 2019.
Like other motor groups, however, Hill said production was hampered by a global semiconductor microchip shortage, expected to create a global industry shortfall of nearly 8-million vehicles in 2021. Microchips are integral in modern vehicles, controlling many functions such as safety systems. Hill said that as a result, many Ranger customers faced delivery delays.
The group is in talks with Transnet about problems with a dedicated freight-rail link between Silverton and Gqeberha. Ford, which has an engine plant there, wants to use its harbour as its main SA import-export hub. Most goods pass through bottlenecked Durban harbour. Hill said Ford wants to channel about 70% of trade through Gqeberha.
Transnet offered the direct link from Silverton to encourage Ford’s investment, but company officials say deadlines are being missed and the project far behind schedule. “It is still alive and we are engaging with Transnet to try to make it work. It has to work but it has been frustrating up to now,” Hill said.