The success of the Coega industrial development zone in luring investors has led to its decision to expand its land area by about 63% to 18000ha.

Coega Development Corporation (CDC) CEO Pepi Silinga said at the weekend that an in-principle agreement had been signed to acquire 7000ha of land from PPC. The purchase price is not being disclosed at this stage.

"At the rate at which we are growing we might run out of space in 10 years," Silinga said in an interview. The land acquisition would eliminate profiteering on land and allow the CDC to benefit from the projected growth in land prices.

In the year to March, the Coega industrial development zone succeeded in almost meeting its target of securing 10 new investors, bringing in nine for the year. These included the R20 billion Alcan smelter, and investments by Dynamic Commodities' fruit sorbet facility (R50 million); Cerebos' salt production plant (R85 million), Biomass Pellets (R70 million); an automotive components manufacturer (R50 million); a precast products manufacturer (R50 million); and three logistics projects with a combined value of R180 million.

Another target of 10 new investors had been set for the current financial year.

About R28 billion has been invested in or committed to the zone which should see about 9,000 workers on site by the end of next year as construction of the Alcan smelter, port infrastructure and other projects gets under way.

CDC spokesperson Vuyelwa Qinga-Vika said lease agreements would also be signed on completion of environmental impact assessments for a 20 billion agro-processing project by SeaArk; a R1,1 billion thin strip mill investment from Germany; and a R5,8 billion joint venture by Chemicals Industries Far East Limited of Singapore and South African empowerment partners in a chlorine refinery and desalination plant.

The chemical plant is to be officially launched next Monday by Singaporean President Sellapan Ramanathan during his state visit to SA. Construction was due to begin in June, Qinga-Vika said.

Another major project in the pipeline is the plan by Russian company Renova to construct a ferroalloys smelter to process Kalahari manganese.