By 2009 car production will equal Europe ED RICHARDSON AUTOMOTIVE AND component manufacturing countries are in for a challenge as Asian countries are moving towards integrating auto markets to ensure a larger market share. This move will not only affect leading automotive and component manufacturers in Europe, but also South Africa. These countries will now have to face the whole of Asia as a threat, instead of just China and India. This is according to report findings by KPMG in China. “By the time the decade draws to a close, Asia can be a passenger car market as large as North America or Europe,” warns Mike Steventon, head of automotive at KPMG in the UK. He says that it has been estimated that by 2009, car production in Asia will increase to 17-million units, equal to that of Europe. “However, the advent of further Free Trade Agreements and the emergence of major manufacturing centres in places like India and Thailand mean that addressing this market is no longer simply a consideration of how much capacity you pump into China,” says Steventon. The idea for integration among Asian countries started when a range of new Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) were put in place across Asia.
Automotive industry faces ‘Asian threat’
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