Capital Equipment News January 2016

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS

JANUARY 2016

At an initial investment value of just over

R200 million, the leading Chinese animal

husbandry, animal feed and meat products

manufacturer - New Hope Group – has es-

tablished its first South African animal feed

plant, going into pilot production at the begin-

ning of December 2015, to be followed with

production for the agricultural market as from

05 January 2016.

CEO of New Hope South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Yang

Zhao, explains: “South Africa was chosen

because the country offered great infrastruc-

ture, a stable political environment and the

opportunity for doing fair business while fol-

lowing strict ethical standards demanded by

our China-group headquarters. Furthermore,

fair trade practices and excellent business

cooperation between China and South Africa

have been very evident from the numerous

Chinese giants that have established them-

selves in South Africa, like FAW Vehicle Man-

ufacturers South Africa which chose to situ-

ate their plant in Coega, Eastern Cape, South

Africa.”

“The New Hope Group, headquartered in Bei-

jing, has fully owned subsidiaries on four con-

tinents and in 20 countries across the globe.

In 2014 our worldwide group collectively sold

15 million tons of animal feed. New Hope SA

(Pty) Ltd will be providing the most affordable,

high-quality animal feed to SA livestock farm-

ers, with assurances of livestock growth and

animal health equivalent to any of the better

established brands,” says Zhao

Being the new entrant into an existing market

is challenging at best, but the parent Chinese

New Hope Group chose carefully when de-

ciding on the location of their second African

subsidiary, the other being in Egypt.

“New Hope has not come to the South African

market with thundering noise or loud fanfare,

but we have taken the time to establish our

first plant at the R59/R550 interchange in

Randvaal Gauteng. This is a good start-up

location; accessible to all the raw materials

which we are sourcing locally only, thereby

creating reciprocal business opportunities

within the agricultural sector,” says Zhao.

Hope’s ethos is very community oriented.

Yang Zhao affirms that they are here for the

long haul, to share ‘space’ in their business

model with local farmers and agricultural

communities; to provide job opportunities for

local people and to bring benefit to all part-

ners associated with them.

The feed plant is poised for scaling to full

production from January next year; and have

put in place all the necessary regulatory and

environmental controls required; the compa-

ny has identified farmers for its supply chain

and chosen suppliers and partners to support

operations.

Their first five FAW commercial vehicles are

ready to distribute the animal feed products,

from the initial test production next month.

The FAW-only fleet has been delivered and

comprises three FAW 28.380FT bulk tank-

er units, one FAW 28.330FL 14-ton freight

carrier and one FAW 15.180FL 8-ton freight

carrier. The larger trucks have been fitted with

bulk tankers to carry the 20 ton and 30 ton

payloads, while the smaller units will service

the bagged (50kg each) feed distribution.

It is envisaged that initially, the vehicles will

run within a 150km radius from their plant

in Gauteng, but will on occasion also run

supplies to Namibia, Botswana and Swazi-

land. As their feed production volumes in-

crease towards reaching their full capacity of

200 000 tons per annum, the fleet will grow

together with their distribution radius – prob-

ably up to 400 km.

“We are already considering investing in an-

other four plants, with the second plant most

probably situated in the Northwest Province,

South Africa. Our greatest consideration

when choosing FAW trucks was reliability and

uptime, reasonable cost of ownership and

an understanding that we will be a custom-

er with high expectations. However, having

said this, we demand from FAW Trucks SA no

more than we expect of ourselves, after all

we work and live by similar goals – to pro-

vide quality products at an affordable price,

with superior after sales service and support,”

concluded Yang Zhao.

CHINESE BUSINESS CONFIDENCE

brings New Hope Group to South Africa

TRANSPORT