Daewoo plans ship repair yard in SA

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the South Korean shipping giant, is interested in establishing a shipyard next to Richards Bay Coal Terminal to service the carriers

that operate in southern African waters.
A delegation from Daewoo arrives this week for further discussions, Department of Transport director-general George Mahlalela said late last week.
While half of SA’s gross domestic product is derived from trade and 98% of the goods are seaborne, SA has no industry or facilities that are able to service this traffic.
Daewoo and the government see potential for a shipyard serving the large volumes of traffic passing through SA’s waters. "The South Koreans want to set up a ship repair yard and are really pushing for these things. They are keen," Mr Mahlalela said.
The shipyard may cost R40bn to build and would form the platform for the company to extend other services in Africa in future. Mr Mahlalela said Daewoo Shipbuilding had identified land owned by Transnet next to the terminal for the development.
Last year Daewoo Shipbuilding bought a 49% stake in President Jacob Zuma ’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma’s Impinda Group for an undisclosed sum. Impinda in partnership with Daewoo planned to ship raw materials such as oil, gas and other raw minerals around Africa.
However, there it is not clear whether Impinda will play any role in the building of the shipyard. Mr Zuma did not respond to messages left on his cellphone while Daewoo was not able to provide comment requested by the time of going to press.
Daewoo, which is the world’s second-biggest shipbuilder, has "done studies", on investing in a shipyard that would start operations offering repair services to vessels operating in the waters along the west and east coast of the continent before possibly diversifying its services, Mr Mahlalela said.
As much as 30% of the world’s crude oil transits SA’s waters, according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority.
Mr Mahlalela said discussions with Daewoo have included issues such as ship registration and access to land.
"They want access to land, next to a port, and they want us to facilitate things such as registering some of their ships in SA," he said. "They also need agreements with some of our big exporters, such as the mining companies."
Daewoo may be required to register some of its ships carrying coal, iron ore and manganese exports from SA under the South African flag. The state can oblige exporters to divert as much as 30% of exports onto ships registered in SA, Mr Mahlalela said. But it was not practical to expect exporters to be immediately released from existing contracts with shipping companies.