A KWAZULU-Natal aluminium alloys manufacturing company, Bingelela Alloys, based in Richards Bay, is being held up as a perfect example of the objectives that the South African Automotive Master Plan 2035 aims to achieve. These include increasing local content in vehicles assembled locally, doubling employment, achieving industry transformation across the value chain, and deepening value addition across selected commodities.
Bingelela is a tier 1 supplier, manufacturing aluminium alloys used to manufacture aluminium rims which are supplied to vehicle manufacturers.
The CEO of Bingelela Alloys, Sizwe Khumalo speaks fondly and contently about the contribution his company is making to the implementation of the master plan. The company has been boosted by support from the Automotive Industry Transformation Fund (AITF).
The ATIF was created to support the implementation of the master plan by multinational automotive manufacturers. Its objectives include supporting black-owned entities, driving job creation, and enabling meaningful transformation and growth of the automotive sector across the value chain.
“We are pleased to be an example of what the implementation of the automotive master plan can achieve. We are ticking several boxes of the objectives of the master plan in that our company is contributing to localisation, import substitution, job creation, black economic empowerment and transformation, and industry skills development. We are also contributing to growing the economy of the KwaZulu-Natal,” says Khumalo.
Khumalo says Bingelela owes its existence and success today to the support it received through the AITF. “The support we obtained in the form of a working capital loan was critical as it allowed us to continue operating, as well as to grow and sustain our business. Without it we could have probably even closed down, because of the high costs of the raw material that we use in our operation,” says Khumalo.
He says according to his knowledge Bingelela is the only company that manufactures and supplies aluminium alloys in South Africa. The company is a product of the automotive master plan in that it was established in 2020 to fulfil the needs of companies who wanted to source products locally in line with their localisation commitments as part of the objectives of the master plan.
“Before we entered the value chain, the two main manufacturers of car wheels in South Africa were sourcing this raw material from abroad. Our intention was to substitute these imports. We were aware that our two potential customers were also under pressure from the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) as government and the industry in general were propagating localisation while they were importing their raw material. As a result, they were looking for alternative local sources to supply the product and we were available to plug the gap,” recalls Khumalo.
He is pleased that Since 2021 the company’s volumes of production have been increasing consistently as the two companies that they supply progressively gained confidence in their capacity to assist in reducing the need for imported product.
“It has been a process. But we are glad that from 100% imports, one of the companies that we supply has increased their local sourcing of the product from us to 70%. This has contributed to us increasing our production. As things stand, we are in the process of expanding our business. Part of the process is setting up a new production facility as our lease of furnaces from Hilumin, which has been hosting us since our inception, comes to an end in December this year,” says Khumalo.
He expresses excitement that the expansion of the company will create more job opportunities. Currently, the company employs 18 people, but is planning to introduce a 24-hour production schedule, which will require more employees.