Pictures Inside Durban's Biggest Fibre Factory

Construction of the 14 000sq m facility was completed in December 2024 after eight years and R310-million of investment. Although the plant's production line started making cables for local customers including Openserve and Dark Fibre Africa as early as January this year, an official opening event was held at the facility on Tuesday.

"This is an incredible, exciting time for the optical cable market," said YOA CEO Pieter Viljoen at the event, which TechCentral attended.

YOA Cable is a subsidiary of Yangtze Optics Africa Holdings, a joint venture between Chinese-based Yangtze Optical Fibre Cable Joint Stock Company and JSE-listed Mustek .

Plans for the factory were first announced in 2016, with the site getting an initial R150-million for the first leg of the build. In 2023, a further R160-million was spent acquiring plant and machinery, bringing the total to R310-million. Mustek has a 25 stake in the venture, according to CEO Hein Engelbrecht, who attended Tuesday's launch event.

The Dube TradePort, where the factory is located, was demarcated as a special economic zone in 2016. With the King Shaka International Airport at it is core, companies operating within the SEZ get easy access to globally connected manufacturing and logistics infrastructure, including cargo operations and warehousing.