Publications
Partners
Update: gallery included.
Uitenhage - Transnet hosted a lavish party for about 1 000 guests and staff members at its engineering division's plant in Uitenhage on Tuesday morning, for President Jacob Zuma to launch a new variant of Transnet Engineering's car carrier.
The original version of this railway truck has been in use for at least five years.
In his official launch of this specific rail truck (called a car carrier rail wagon), Zuma highlighted the importance of the motor car assembly plants in the Eastern Cape and Transnet's large investments to support industry through investment in new infrastructure.
"Transnet has invested R11.2bn during the last six months in new infrastructure," he said.
This is part of planned investment of more than R26bn by Transnet in the Eastern Cape alone, in accordance with governnment's new economic strategy.
Admittedly, the newest variant of this specific rail truck is something to brag about.
Design of the first of these rail wagons - to transport new cars from the assembly plants in and around Port Elizabeth to showroom floors in SA's major cities - started as long ago as 2007.
The train wagon is manufactured at Transnet Engineering's plant in Uitenhage - right in the centre of the local vehicle manufacturing hub - and is, according to Transnet, part of its R307bn rolling seven-year infrastructure improvement programme.
Manufacturers like Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz and Opel/Isuzu have large plants in the area and need to move shiny new cars safely and securely wrapped up to new owners.
Transnet Engineering came up with a novel solution: an enclosed railway car which keeps the new (expensive) vehicles safe from the sun, dust and electrical sparks from the overhead power lines that power locomotives.
It also keeps the vehicles out of sight of thieves.
An enclosed railway car solved the problem of youngsters throwing stones at brand new vehicles on their way to the new owners.
The rail wagons were designed in consultation with motor vehicle manufacturers to ensure that new cars will fit safely and tightly inside.
Transnet Engineering said that 90% of all cars on SA roads will fit into one of the two variants of the car carrier rail wagons.
In total, 234 of these wagons are in use already. Around 130 units of the improved model have already been built and delivered to the operational side of Transnet.
Another 350 will be built during the next few months.
It seems that the lavish launch of a successful, proven product and factory tour by Zuma and a horde of journalists and photographers are a few years too late.
But then, it won't hurt to fire up the business jet to Port Elizabeth, jump in a nine-car convoy and then shake hands with some of Transnet's 45 000 workers - a few months before a general election.
It shows solidarity with workers in SA, and the cost is borne by Transnet and the National Treasury.
Zuma said the Eastern Cape region is central to the government's plans to strengthen the backbone of the country's freight transport and logistics infrastructure.
"Government wants to provide more support in particular to manufacturing centres that suffer from a disadvantage by virtue of their location in South Africa."
He said the Eastern Cape automotive cluster is one of the most important drivers of growth in this region as well as for the country, as the automotive manufacturing sector is one of South Africa's key foreign revenue earners.
Nearly forgot to say that the new car carrier rail wagon has lights to load and offload vehicles at night. The previous model didn't.
- Fin24
* After chasing money on the JSE for 15 years, Adriaan Kruger is now living a relaxed lifestyle in Wilderness and lectures economics part-time at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Views expressed are his own.
Uitenhage - Transnet hosted a lavish party for about 1 000 guests and staff members at its engineering division's plant in Uitenhage on Tuesday morning, for President Jacob Zuma to launch a new variant of Transnet Engineering's car carrier.
The original version of this railway truck has been in use for at least five years.
In his official launch of this specific rail truck (called a car carrier rail wagon), Zuma highlighted the importance of the motor car assembly plants in the Eastern Cape and Transnet's large investments to support industry through investment in new infrastructure.
"Transnet has invested R11.2bn during the last six months in new infrastructure," he said.
This is part of planned investment of more than R26bn by Transnet in the Eastern Cape alone, in accordance with governnment's new economic strategy.
Admittedly, the newest variant of this specific rail truck is something to brag about.
Design of the first of these rail wagons - to transport new cars from the assembly plants in and around Port Elizabeth to showroom floors in SA's major cities - started as long ago as 2007.
The train wagon is manufactured at Transnet Engineering's plant in Uitenhage - right in the centre of the local vehicle manufacturing hub - and is, according to Transnet, part of its R307bn rolling seven-year infrastructure improvement programme.
View gallery
President Jacob Zuma with Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba at the launch of Transnet’s newly designed rail wagons. (Transnet)
Manufacturers like Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz and Opel/Isuzu have large plants in the area and need to move shiny new cars safely and securely wrapped up to new owners.
Transnet Engineering came up with a novel solution: an enclosed railway car which keeps the new (expensive) vehicles safe from the sun, dust and electrical sparks from the overhead power lines that power locomotives.
It also keeps the vehicles out of sight of thieves.
An enclosed railway car solved the problem of youngsters throwing stones at brand new vehicles on their way to the new owners.
The rail wagons were designed in consultation with motor vehicle manufacturers to ensure that new cars will fit safely and tightly inside.
Transnet Engineering said that 90% of all cars on SA roads will fit into one of the two variants of the car carrier rail wagons.
In total, 234 of these wagons are in use already. Around 130 units of the improved model have already been built and delivered to the operational side of Transnet.
Another 350 will be built during the next few months.
It seems that the lavish launch of a successful, proven product and factory tour by Zuma and a horde of journalists and photographers are a few years too late.
But then, it won't hurt to fire up the business jet to Port Elizabeth, jump in a nine-car convoy and then shake hands with some of Transnet's 45 000 workers - a few months before a general election.
It shows solidarity with workers in SA, and the cost is borne by Transnet and the National Treasury.
Zuma said the Eastern Cape region is central to the government's plans to strengthen the backbone of the country's freight transport and logistics infrastructure.
"Government wants to provide more support in particular to manufacturing centres that suffer from a disadvantage by virtue of their location in South Africa."
He said the Eastern Cape automotive cluster is one of the most important drivers of growth in this region as well as for the country, as the automotive manufacturing sector is one of South Africa's key foreign revenue earners.
Nearly forgot to say that the new car carrier rail wagon has lights to load and offload vehicles at night. The previous model didn't.
- Fin24
* After chasing money on the JSE for 15 years, Adriaan Kruger is now living a relaxed lifestyle in Wilderness and lectures economics part-time at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Views expressed are his own.
