MARCOPOLO SOUTH AFRICA INVESTS $10M IN GERMISTON PLANT
Bus manufacturer Marcopolo South Africa is investing $10-million on improving and expanding its manufacturing facility in Germiston, Gauteng. The company expects to sell 700 units this year, and expects the number to increase going forward, as it has tendered for a number of significant projects in South Africa.
The expansion of the bus building plant means that production capacity would be tripled, to 1800 units per year. The group expected the number of employees to increase to 1 000 in 2009. The expansion plans coincide with the launching of the Volksbus buses by Volkswagen on the South-African market. Besides, the Germiston plant produces also for other African countries.
Marcopolo has established a training centre at the facility in Germiston, to develop local skills to cope with the forecast increase in demand in the South African market. The training centre could train groups of 28 people, and the skills learnt were the interpretation of drawings, welding, pneumatics, painting, mechanical, and body building. The production line in Germiston is modelled on the same basis of the parent company in Brazil, and all major repairs and rebuilds were carried out on site. Marcopolo South Africa has tendered for the bus rapid-transit (BRT) project in Gauteng. The company has developed a specific prototype on the basis of he Gran Viale articulated bus for this BRT system at its research and development hub in Brazil. The low-entry Gran Viale can hold up to 120 passengers. The BRT vehicle will be manufactured locally for 70%, if Marcopolo wins the order.