India’s automotive industry is set to become the third biggest in the world - but with South Africa making R1.4 billion through exporting original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts to its Brics trade bloc partner, this could be good news for both parties.
Figures presented at the recent Automotive Logistics India conference show that India could become one of the world’s top vehicle producing nations by 2020.
Market analyst for IHS Markit, Anil Sharma, said that India was currently producing 25 million cars a year, with the sector’s manufacturing set to grow by 7.5% over the next three years – compared to the average global growth of 2.2%.
Furthermore, the automotive industry now accounts for 45% of India’s total manufacturing, according to Sharma.
There are now more than 200 model variants on the Indian car market and the product lifecycle is getting shorter as new models are revealed.
However, the Automotive Export Manual 2016: South Africa report by the Automotive Industry Export Council (AIEC) – which provides insight into the export and import performance of the South African automotive industry under the Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP) – shows that while South Africa imported over 8.7 million light vehicles from India in 2015 (out of a total of R10.7 million worth of automotive imports), India imported R871.3 million worth of engines from South Africa (out of a total of R1.4bn of total automotive exports).
India is SA’s 6th largest automotive export market and its 8th largest import source market.
