The foundation laying ceremony of the fiber optic cable manufacturing factory of YOFC in South African city Durban has been held on 13 May. The Chinese based optical fiber and cable manufacturing company, YOFC (Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable) moves forward with their plan to establish manufacturing facilities to cater to the needs of growing African market for fiber optic cables.
After the conclusion of the JV agreement on YOFC Africa Holding Co., Ltd. (YOFC Africa) in March 2016, the foundation laying ceremony of YOFC Joint Stock Limited Company in Durban marks another milestone for the company.
Many top officials from the Chinese consulate in South Africa, trade promotion departments in South Africa and YOFC also joined the opening ceremony;
Wang Jianzhou, Chinese Consul General in Durban
Rong Yansong, Chinese Economic and Commercial Counselor in South Africa
Cllr. Nomvuzo Shabalala, Vice Mayor of eThekwin
Mike Mabuyakhulu, MEC for Economic Development & Tourism in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
Yunus Hoosen, Deputy Chief Director of the Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa
Head of Investment Promotion & Facilitation at the Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa
Chairman Wen Huiguo
Independent Director Li Ping
President Zhuang Dan
First Vice President Jan Bongaerts of YOFC
Pieter Viljoen, President of YOFC Africa
President David Kan
Independent Director Dr. Mdu Gamaof
CFO Neels Coetzee of YOFC Africa’s JV partner Mustek.
It has been estimated by various market research organizations that Africa’s demand for optical fiber will shoot to more than 18 million fiber kilometers by 2018.
Currently there seven manufacturing facilities for optical fiber cables in African countries. South Africa has two cable manufacturers engaged in the production of fiber optic cables such as cbi electric and M-tec. Morocco has two cable manufacturers such as FBR Cables and Furukawa (construction work is in progress in Tangier). Egypt has two candidates, Energya Cables, and El-Sewedy. Recently El-Sewedy stopped their operation in Egypt. Algeria has one company called CATEL. Since El-Sewedy stopped operation in Egypt, we can say there are 6 companies on the African continent. YOFC Africa would be the seventh one.
There is no optical fiber manufacturer in any of the countries in the African continent. Also, there are no optical preform manufacturers. There were rumors that the Algerian government is considering investing in building an optical fiber company in Algeria, but we could not validate the true nature of such news.
As Africa’s second-largest economy, South Africa boasts a perfect financial and legal system, as well as a stable political environment. The South African government vigorously advanced the National Broadband Strategy in 2015 to boost South Africa’s demand for optical fiber and cable. Headquartered in Johannesburg, YOFC Africa is expected to go into operation in the fourth quarter of 2016 with initial annual cable design and production capacity of 1,000,000 core kilometers.
YOFC has successively built manufacturing plants in Myanmar and Indonesia. The foundation laying of YOFC Africa will spread YOFC’s reach to African countries apart from the current Asian region. The company has plans to extend from South Africa to the rest of Africa to become the most influential optical fiber and cable supplier in Africa.
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