Offset projects for South Africa

In the year 2000 MAN Ferrostaal, as part of the German Submarine Consortium, finalised a contract for supplying three type 209 submarines to the South African Navy. This order was connected with investments in South Africa in the context of reciprocal transactions. MAN Ferrostaal took on the task of fulfilling this contract clause for the consortium, which consisted of HDW and MAN Ferrostaal.

By now we have fulfilled over 80% percent of our obligations on time. The range of our more than 20 offset projects is extremely varied:

• We built up new industries. One example is a fabrication yard for oil and gas platforms in Saldanha Bay, Western Cape. This would give South Africa the possibility to take part in the oil and gas market. This is to be supplemented by a maintenance and service station for platforms in Cape Town.

• We saved businesses to overcome financial difficulties and from having to dismiss workers. An example of this is a production center for microchips in Pretoria. We also helped two tea plantations to keep up business. This saved thousands of jobs. 

• Education is key to tomorrows jobs. This is why we funded a training center for the qualification of young people in the city of Atlantis. 

• We supported the building up of a PET recycling plant in Johannesburg. As a result, thousand untrained workers get their earnings by collecting plastic garbage. This helps to clean up the streets of Johannesburg and at the same time, recycled plastic fibres are produced as a basic material for the textile industry. 

• Our company is one of the two financers of the Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa Fund. The Cape Town based fund has a volume of 350 million rand and supports South African start-ups.

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