General Motors South Africa (GMSA), the wholly owned subsidiary of the global motor giant, GM Corporation, is making a further multimillion-rand investment in South Africa.

Denise van Huyssteen, GMSA's corporate communications manager, confirmed the company was acquiring an additional 130 000m2 of vacant land adjacent to its Struandale assembly plant in Port Elizabeth, which produces its Opel models.

Van Huyssteen said the current size of the Struandale plant site was 240 000m2.

"The land acquisition is an integral part of General Motors SA's planning to secure the future in terms of potential expansion of production facilities in Port Elizabeth," she said.

"This multimillion-rand investment is a further demonstration of the commitment of GM to the South African economy," Van Huyssteen said.

GM Corporation and Delta Motor Corporation in January last year, in terms of which GM acquired, for an undisclosed amount, the 51 per cent stake in Delta it had not previously owned.

At the time, GM also expressed its keenness to develop a fully built-up vehicle export programme for the company.

Van Huyssteen said the proposed property transaction was "not necessarily" related to the acquisition of a fully built-up export contract.

However, such an export programme "remains a priority focus area for General Motors SA".

She added that GMSA's current production capacity utilisation was at 72 per cent and "expansions to our operations would be dependent upon the realisation of future plans".

Van Huyssteen said the price offered for the property was confidential and the transaction was currently "in process".

However, GMSA hoped it would be finalised as soon as possible.

Van Huyssteen declined to name the current owner of the property.

She added that GMSA was also unable at the moment to disclose any information on what investment the company intended making to expand its production capacity.