The combined area of investor expansions, new facilities and special infrastructure projects in the IDZ, such as the laydown area for abnormal cargo near the deep-water port of Ngqura, had a footprint of 164,007m².
Logistics, agro-processing, chemical and energy sectors have been the main growth drivers over the last 18 months, said CDC head of Marketing and Communication, Dr Ayanda Vilakazi.
"Newly completed infrastructure development projects have included the Afrox and Air Products plants, with a combined value of R600m, and several projects for logistics companies including UTI, Vector Logistics and ID Logistics, with a pooled value of R200m. The laydown area's project value was R9m," he said.
Signed investor lease agreements finalised towards the end of CDC's 2014/15 financial year will introduce new industrial and commercial activity on 80,666m² of land in the Coega IDZ in the 2015/16 financial year, and the value of these came in at R214m.
During this period, CDC also received 12 letters of intent from new investors for industrial and commercial activity spread over 97,728m² with an investment value of R1,2bn, which it is busy progressing to new signings.
"To put these figures into perspective, the new signed lease agreements and new investor pipeline will introduce industrial activity over an area of 177,000m² or 24 rugby fields," said Dr Vilakazi. The value of commercial and industrial assets currently under construction in the Coega IDZ is R3,6bn and these are taking place on an area of 169,170m².
The Dedisa Peaking Power Plant - valued at R3,5bn - has a 150,000m² footprint, while the remaining 19,170m² are projects in the IDZ logistics and agro-processing zones. These include the 4,038m² warehouse expansions of Digistics in the logistics zone valued at R32m, the 7,332m² expansion of Coega Dairy valued at R24m, and the 6,000m² multi-user facility in the agro-processing zone valued at R86m, which offers investors smaller units of between 350m² and 1,500m² under one roof with communal infrastructure.
The industrial construction boom is essentially amongst others the result of the newly announced Special Economic Zone (SEZ) incentives, which are drawing foreign and domestic direct investments to Port Elizabeth's IDZ.
"In the future, the IDZ will be able to offer qualifying investors a corporate tax rate of 15%, as well as the suspension of VAT and customs duty. It is also important to recognise that the Coega IDZ Zone 1 and 2 was designated Custom Control Area in 2014, giving investors much needed relief in terms of port duties," he said.
Dr Vilakazi added that future long-term projects that will drive commercial and industrial property development in the IDZ include a new international cargo airport in advanced manufacturing cluster; Project Mthombo - the Eastern Cape oil refinery planned in Coega; the aquaculture farm and a second gas power plant in the IDZ, which CDC announced this month.
