Eskom power attracts the ECAs

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01 October 2006

Trade Finance talks to Piers Constable, director of export finance at Deutsche Bank in London about the successful closing of one of the most significant export financings in sub-Saharan Africa in 2006 – financing the import of gas turbines for South Africa's Eskom.

Power cuts have been dogging Cape Town and the western Cape region of South Africa for some time now and Eskom, the state-owned power generation company, is working to try and stop this becoming a feature of South African life. Combined with the ZAR1.1 billion ($140.5 million) upgrade of power lines from Mpumalanga to the Koeberg nuclear plant, two power stations are under construction to cope with the shortages. The two gas-fired generation plants, at Atlantis and Mossel Bay, should be completed by 2007.

Following public outcry in the press, Eskom began taking steps to increase its base load and peaking capacity over a five to six year period so that by 2010 it will have the capacity to meet the region's needs going forward. A capital expansion strategy was already in place and Eskom had calculated that between 2006 and 2010 it would have to spend about...

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