VM AUTOMOTIVE: Formidable Fusion of World-Class Equipment and Expertise

The automotive industry is South Africa’s most important manufacturing sector, with approximately one-third of value addition within the domestic manufacturing sector derived either directly or indirectly from vehicle assembly and automotive component manufacturing activity. While this positions the industry and its broader value chain as a key player within South Africa’s industrialisation drive, it nevertheless represents a continuous work in progress.  

At a national policy level, it has been heavily supported by the government in the form of the Motor Industry Development Programme, from 1995 to 2012, and more recently the Automotive Production and Development Programme until 2020. The domestic market has stagnated since its vehicle consumption peak in 2006, however, while imports have surged as global vehicle assemblers have aggressively pursued markets to fill production capacity. As a result, opportunities within the South African automotive value chain have been tightly constrained, with 73% of the domestic passenger vehicle market and 19% of the light commercial vehicle market supplied by imports in 2015. 

It cannot be denied that the industry exhibits substantial potential, though. At only 0.68% of global vehicle production and operating in a market with low levels of vehicle ownership and a growing middle-class consumption base, the future of the industry looks poised to be extremely bright. “It is within this context that VM Automotive was born,” says the company, with a South African Automotive Master Plan in place to guide the development of the entire value chain through to 2035.  

Six key development aspects have been identified as being central to the realisation of a globally competitive and transformed industry that actively contributes to the sustainable development of South Africa’s productive economy, creating prosperity for industry stakeholders and broader society alike. Growing South African vehicle production to 1% of global output, increasing local content in South African assembled vehicles to up to 60% and improving automotive industry competitiveness levels all feature highly within this mutually supportive package of objectives. 

FOREMOST FACILITIES

“We are the transformed supplier of choice providing world-class blanking manufacture of aluminium and steel products for the South African market,” VM Automotive announces, perfectly placed to capitalise on the pressure currently faced by OEMs to improve their transformation and localisation strategies.

An original plant located at Rosslyn catering to OEMs’ every blanking and press tooling requirement has been joined by a second, state-of-the-art Berlin site, where VM Automotive has become the proud owner of the first Schuler Laser Blanking Line in the Southern Hemisphere and master of only the sixth such machine in the world.

“Ready for tomorrow’s industrial production,” is how Schuler bills this highly flexible and extremely productive manufacturing system, in which the line cuts blanks out of a moving sheet metal coil that are then later formed into car body parts; as fibre lasers are used for the cutting process, no dies are required in contrast to conventional blanking lines. “Laser blanking lines with DynamicFlow Technology (DFT) are a highly flexible, productive manufacturing system,” VM Automotive stresses.

“They use extremely powerful fibre lasers for the continuous cutting of coiled material. The result is a high production rate, a superior cutting quality and an excellent contour precision, even for sensitive outer-body-blanks.” The flexible blanking method means that product changes can be made with almost no set-up time, simply by loading the corresponding cutting programme, while material can be saved by optimising nesting and coil waste is markedly reduced.

“Backed by Schuler’s years of experience with the specific requirements of the automotive industry, laser blanking lines with DynamicFlow Technology delivers an impressive package of incredibly flexible production conditions at comparatively low investment costs.

“This makes them a legitimate alternative to conventional, die-based blanking systems in the blanking shop.” VM Automotive’s facilities are, additionally, the only blanking services in South Africa that have the capability to process both aluminium 6000 and 5000. “Our new Berlin plant has a competitive advantage, offering the first Schuler Laser Blanking Line 2.18 in the Southern Hemisphere,” the company proudly states.

INJECTION INITIATIVE

The brainchild of Gibson Njenje, a former spy boss previously the head of domestic intelligence for the State Security Agency, VM Automotive was founded in 2013 and in 2019 began its investment into a R450 million factory and Schuler laser blanking line. It now becomes one of the latest local manufacturers to be contracted to supply aluminium and steel blanks to Mercedes-Benz.

The automotive industry remains a pivotal sector in the Eastern Cape economy and is seen as a crucial factor in growing its economy, with job creation top of the agenda as the province grapples with an unemployment rate of more than 49%. VM Automotive’s venture forms an integral part of a wider effort to revive the ailing economy of the Eastern Cape, with it having set up in the small industrial town of Ntabozuko, formerly known as Berlin, 50km inland from East London.

“We are already doing blanking work for Mercedes-Benz in East London and BMW in Rosslyn, Pretoria,” explains VM Automotive CEO Gibson Njenje. “We broke into the automotive market when we bought a 100% stake in a plant owned by MA Automotive Tool & Die that is located in Rosslyn and took control of their contracts with BMW.

“We are doing work with Mercedes-Benz on the W205 series, which is the outgoing C Class series. This ended in 2021 and we have signed a separate contract for the W206 series, which began in 2021 and ends in 2028. The cycles are usually seven years. Early in 2019 we were awarded the W206 contract and this is why we started to build in Berlin. We have now completed the building, which is a superstructure building for the Berlin area,” Njenje adds, estimating the cost of the factory’s construction at R100 million including offices, workshops, testing areas and cleaning facilities.

“Our expansion will have to start here at home first,” rounded off Njenje of the company’s plans to grow and diversify its footprint in the immediate future. “We have got to target many other OEMs first. Currently we are supplying to Mercedes Benz and BMW from our Rosslyn plant in Pretoria. There’s VW, there’s Toyota, there’s Isuzu that we’re still talking to.

“That’s our approach in terms of here but we also want to look beyond the automotive sector to other users of metals. The company’s objective is to develop the local economy and specifically the rural economy, and most importantly ensure employment opportunities for the impoverished youth.”