Auto industry heads for record export year

With the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) figures for vehicle exports in May showing well over double the figure compared to the same month last year, the big question was why? With a rise of 17 816 units to a 33 411 total – a jump of 114.2% – not all of this could be attributable to a greater offtake than in the world’s feeble trading conditions in 2014. FTW presumed there had to be other reasons for such a massive leap. So we approached Naamsa director, Nico Vermeulen, for an answer. And his reply was simple, but significant. “The main reason,” he told FTW, “was that in May last year Mercedes Benz was not producing for exports. This was for a nine-month period from October 2013 to the middle of 2014. “And with them having come back on stream since then, this accounted for about 10 000 of that 17 000 plus extra exports.” But that left about 7 000 extra still unaccounted for. A more reasonablesounding increase, but still a pretty tidy jump of almost 40%. “The export growth differed from company to company,” said Vermeulen. “Toyota, for example, had problems in Africa with various regulatory changes in certain countries.” But for them, and the other manufacturers, especially MB and VW, exports to Europe showed reasonably good demand, according to Vermeulen. “Australasia was also positive, with South America beginning to contribute. Africa was a bit of a mixed bag.” But, he added, you could also take into account greater export efforts by most of the industry, and also that recovery from the rather poor offtake of immediately preceding years because of the global economic slowdown. “The industry continued to gain momentum and was increasingly contributing positively to SA’s current account of the balance of payments,” Vermeulen added. “Vehicle exports for 2015 remain on target to improve by around 25% in volume terms to an industry record export number of about 330 000 for the year. “And the new-vehicle industry production will continue to move upwards as a result of substantially higher export sales.”