Gestamp Sets Up Wind-Tower Plant in South Africa

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--GRI Renewable Industries, the industrial wind division of Corporacion Gestamp (Madrid, Spain), is investing more than $33 million in a wind-tower manufacturing facility in South Africa. The factory will be sited at Atlantis, which is near Cape Town on the Atlantic coast. This will be the second tower-manufacturing plant to be set up in South Africa.

The project will create more than 200 jobs at the world-class plant, which will have an initial annual production capacity of 150 towers. The plant will supply the South African market, which is set to benefit from a strong project pipeline. The plant should be up and running by the second half of 2014.

The group also is constructing a 75-megawatt (MW) windfarm on the Noblesfontein farm in the Karoo area, near Victoria West in the Northern Cape province. It will have an investment of $235 million. Gestamp wind is also hoping to be awarded another wind project of 100.8 MW in the third round of the government's renewable public tender process (REIPP).

"With this new facility, GRI consolidates its position in the South African market, which will enable the business to deploy and share its know-how in the local market," said Javier Imaz, chief executive officer of GRI.

For related information, see May 28, 2013, article - South Africa's Strong Renewables Program Boosts Equipment Manufacturing Projects.

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