OVERVIEW
Manufacturing Boatbuilders are busy. SECTOR INSIGHT Hayden Cobra cars are on the road again.
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he need for security at sea is driving demand among boatbuilders. Patrol vessels for the South African Navy are being produced by Damen Shipyards Cape Town and Paramount Maritime Holdings is busy with orders for vessels to protect other ships from pirates in the Gulf of Guinea. Bloomberg reported in 2021 that the subsidiary of the Paramount Group was building 26 boats for a combined value of $60-million. The keel-laying ceremony for the third MultiMission Inshore Patrol Vessels (MMIPV) that Damen Shipyards was contracted to deliver to the Navy was held in October 2021. Invest Cape Town reports that the city’s boatbuilding industry is the second-largest producer of recreational catamarans in the world, after France. The city’s companies export 80% of the products that they produce and attract a positive trade balance of approximately $73-million annually. Boatbuilding exports have grown by 20.5% annually year-on-year since 2014 in Cape Town (Quantec, 2019). Robertson & Caine’s facility in Woodstock produces three boats a week for the international market. With a staff complement of 1 350, the company is a leader in power catamarans and sailing catamarans. Nautic Africa makes larger vessels, including patrol, defence, oil and gas platform and commercial vessels while companies such as Smit Amandla Marine and De Beers Marine offer a wide range of services. The Whisper Boat Building Academy is located at the False Bay TVET College. The Manufacturing and Competitiveness Enhancement
ONLINE RESOURCES Cape Clothing and Textile Cluster: www.capeclothingcluster.org.za Invest Cape Town: www.investcapetown.com Wesgro: www.wesgro.co.za Western Cape Maritime Cluster: www.wcmc.org.za
WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2022
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Programme (MCEP) of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) has disbursed grants which have resulted in 230 000 jobs being sustained. Because of the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme, that sector currently now employs around 95 0 0 0 workers, contributing 8% to manufacturing GDP and 2.9% to overall GDP. In the leather sector 22 new factories have been opened, supporting 2 200 jobs. In the Western Cape, this revival is reflected in member companies of the Cape Clothing and Textile Cluster hiring 35% more staff in four years. About 23 600 people are employed in the province and exports from the Cape amounted in 2017 to R4.4-billion with sales up by 34% above inflation. A new investor has breathed new life into the manufacturing business of Hayden Cobra (pic tured). The maker of replica cars is operating out of Montague Gardens and building for the local and export markets, primarily the US and the Middle East. Three models are manufactured: the Classic 427, the Evo and a Cobra with an electric drive which promises “instantaneous torque”. ■
