Johannesburg, South Africa, 4 Oct – South African company Nampak said Wednesday in Johannesburg that it planned to invest 600 million rand in building a packaging factory in Luanda, as part of an African expansion plan.

The unit, located on the outskirts of Luanda, will have a production capacity of 700 million drinks cans per year and is expected to go into production in mid 2009, according to a statement from the company.

John Bortolan, the chairman of Nampak, said that the factory was “one of the most important investments in the company’s history,” considering the growth of the Angolan market and economy.

The investment in Luanda is part of Nampak’s plans to expand in Africa, on which it has spent 1.5 billion rand in the last year. (macauhub)