ROVD Engineering is looking at moving its operations offshore following the imposition of 30% tariffs on South Africa by the US. (Photo: ROVD Engineering) 
ROVD Engineering, based in Nelson Mandela Bay, has already lost hundreds of millions of rands in contracts and on Wednesday, 6 August said it was looking at moving offshore to continue manufacturing.
The company has been a stalwart of the automotive manufacturing industry in Nelson Mandela Bay for 61 years, designing, manufacturing and exporting turnkey industrial automation systems to US customers, many of whom have now cancelled current and future contracts with the firm because of escalating costs.
The firm’s people and culture manager, Athi Lupondwana, said the company had halted all expansion plans and that significant job losses were on the cards. There was no new work coming in, and the company had scaled back to a four-day workweek.
“We will stretch it out for as long as we can,” said Lupondwana.
“We were on the brink of doubling our workforce, launching new facilities, and injecting energy into the local economy,” said CEO Garth de Villiers. “Now that entire future has been pulled out from under us.”
Lupondwana said there had been no direct contact, clarity or support from the government.
“ROVD is now considering offshore manufacturing to remain globally competitive, a move that would end 61 years of continuous local operations in Gqeberha,” said De Villiers.
“After 61 years in Gqeberha, this is not a decision we ever thought we’d have to consider. But right now, we are being penalised for trying to compete.”
In a statement, the firm said, “ROVD calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition to move beyond public statements and urgently engage in targeted diplomacy with the United States. Real jobs are at risk, not abstract economic concepts.”
“We don’t need blanket statements,” said De Villiers. “We need decisions, diplomacy and decisive action. Otherwise, the Eastern Cape will quietly collapse and no one will have stopped to notice.”
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ROV21_032.jpg "ROVD Engineering has warned of major job losses at its factory in Nelson Mandela Bay. (Photo: ROVD Engineering)")
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ROVD was established by Raymond Oswyn Vivian Durrant in Gqeberha (then Port Elizabeth) in 1964.
At full operational capacity, ROVD directly employs more than 150 staff in its design, fabrication, assembly and installation operations and supports a wide network of local subcontractors and sub-suppliers.
“This ripple effect sustains hundreds more jobs in our community, from fabrication and machining to logistics and painting. With the cancellation of projects and slowdown in exports, that entire ecosystem is now under threat. If our order book dries up, their work dries up. The consequences are exponential,” said Lupondwana.
“Many of them are small businesses that rely on our workflow to keep their teams employed. If we lose industrial jobs here, we lose the support ecosystems around them. It’s not just factories, it’s families and entire communities.”
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“Prior to the tariff announcement, ROVD had secured land to build our new premises and started architectural work to triple its production capacity,” said De Villiers.
“The project would have created dozens of new skilled positions, apprenticeships and local procurement opportunities across the Eastern Cape. But this has now been suspended indefinitely. This was not a conceptual project. We were building our future home. Now, it’s just silence.”
In 2023, ROVD hit the headlines after it built a digitally controlled salt harvester for a mine in Botswana. It was the first machine of its kind in Africa.
It counts some of the most well-known names in cars globally as clients, including Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW, Ford and Toyota.
In 2024, ROVD shipped 120 containers to the US, spending about R28-million on logistics. With the new tariff regime, each container now costs an additional R280,000, resulting in more than R33-million in added costs a year, which makes the company uncompetitive on shipping alone.
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A big blow
Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen said the imposition of the tariffs was a big blow for local businesses, especially in the automotive and agricultural sectors.
“The Eastern Cape economy, including Nelson Mandela Bay, is likely to be the most adversely affected in the country by these developments.
“We are starting to see the immediate impact of this on local companies that trade directly with the United States, such as ROVD. This is a very concerning situation which makes their export contracts unsustainable, in turn affecting future growth plans, as well as the ongoing viability of their operations and ability to continue to employ people,” she said.
“This has the added knock-on impact on other businesses which provide services to them, and also further weakens the ecosystem around our local manufacturing industry.”
Van Huyssteen said she had a meeting with the labour unions represented in the metro this week, where they asked for information about the impact of the deindustrialisation that the tariffs would cause.
“We are now all fighting for survival,” she said.
She said immediate steps must be taken to protect local manufacturing and put it on a more level playing field with global competitors.
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“Negotiations need to continue with the United States in an attempt to reach more favourable trade conditions between the two countries,” she said.
“Export markets cannot simply be switched overnight. We need to strengthen existing trade relations with key markets in Europe and Southeast Asia. Moreover, we currently do not have specified free trade agreements in place with BRICS markets, and our trade with these countries tends to be orientated around South Africa providing unbeneficated raw materials, and these countries in turn providing us with finished manufactured products.
“There needs to be an urgent and concerted focus to change this equation so that it becomes more balanced, to enable SA to also provide manufactured goods, thus enabling the retention and creation of meaningful local jobs.”
Renai Moothilal from the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (Naacam) said automotive component manufacturers were in a “very concerning” situation.
He said only about a third of components were previously covered by tariffs, but now all components were subject to them.
“In the immediate term, firms with contracts in place will keep them in place at the expense of the consumer.”
He said the automotive industry typically worked about two years in advance, and automotive companies with future contracts were now in danger.
While a diplomatic approach had to be followed, constructive measures to assist firms in jeopardy would have to be put in place, he said. DM