Johannesburg | Friday 11.00am.
VOLVO is to use South Africa as a base for exporting catalytic converters and alloy wheels to its global assembly plants.
The plan, just announced, is one of the first of several countertrade projects to get the go ahead linked to the defence agreement between South Africa, BAE Systems and Swedish company, Saab.
BAE Systems said Volvo agreed to use AP Parts, a company based in Port Elizabeth, to supply catalytic converters for Volvo international.
Volvo Car South Africa spokesperson, Andre Oosthuizen, said that a further project is under consideration that would involve using South Africa as a base to export leather seats.
BAE and Saab are joint venture partners in the Gripen fighter aircraft, which is to be supplied to the South African national Defence Force. The defence agreement also involves several non-defence related projects geared towards new investments and job creation.
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