To successfully adapt to and eventually triumph in the challenging nature of the automotive industry in South Africa, automotive component manufacturers must keep abreast of new developments, thereby ensuring that they remain relevant and significant competitors.

This objective, together with perseverance, honesty, technology, quality products and proper certification, “can open doors”, says automotive components solutions manufacturer Wekaba Engineering business development manager Neil Sewnarain.

Having officially opened its newest R25-million plant in Alberton, Gauteng, last month – despite it being operational since last year – Wekaba is making headway in putting the facility’s enhanced capabilities to use. It is, for example, liaising with a client for the machining of wheel studs that will be supplied to a leading original-equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Wekaba’s work will help the client “secure the opportunity to supply a finished product to an OEM,” he says.

Its new manufacturing plant will also produce oxygen sensors, control-arm bushes, chassis pins and an array of automotive and machined components.

Sewnarain believes that, currently and for the foreseeable future, the significant innovations and trends in the South African automotive industry include demand for high-quality design and optimal performance, as well as using new component manufacturing technologies to provide the broader industry with premium components.

Wekaba’s standing as a trusted components manufacturer and supplier, both locally and globally, is owed to its meeting the criteria of industry standards for manufacturing machined components, including its being ISO 9001/2015 complaint and IATF 16949 certified, which certain clients demand.

The company’s new plant contains more than 100 machine centres that produce robust automotive components for multiple industries.

Since its establishment, with a mere three machines, in 1981, Wekaba has persisted in providing precision-engineered automotive components, and the launch of its new plant is proof of the company’s pledge to advance the component manufacturing industry in South Africa in the long term.

The company also maintains a Level 3 broad-based black economic-empowerment status, contributing to its being one of the leading suppliers in South Africa.

“The launch of Wekaba’s new automotive plant is a significant development that will create new opportunities,” Sewnarain enthuses.