New wet-blue plant

Springbok Trading's new wet-blue plant, at the former Riverside Tannery in Port Elizabeth, finally went on stream in August after investing US$239,000 in a new effluent plant. Paul Ward, managing director, said production had been delayed initially by uncertainty over whether their bid to buy Riverside had been successful. The further delay was due to the need to completely rebuild the effluent plant. The tannery has a capacity to wet-blue 1,500 hides/day but they intend building up gradually in order to avoid quality problems. Butterworth Tannery, a joint venture between Springbok and Sparta Beef, is operating at capacity (around 750 hides/day) which will enable Springbok to process 45,000 hides/month when they are in full production. Previously they had their hides contract tanned. Between 60 and 70% of their hides are sold into the automotive sector while most of the remainder is exported, as wet-blues, to Italian furniture upholstery tanners.