Naamsa expects 15% growth in vehicle exports

ED RICHARDSON THE NATIONAL Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) is optimistic about vehicle exports in 2005. In its comment on the market in January, Naamsa said “the industry’s 2005 built-up vehicle export performance would be closely allied to conditions in the global economy. Current projections for 2005 - taking into account various new light commercial/multipurpose vehicle export programmes - suggested an improvement in exports of about 15,5%.” This is despite the increase in the value of the local currency. “Under pressure from the strong rand and highly competitive global market conditions, the momentum of vehicle exports continued to soften throughout 2004,” said Naamsa. Aggregate industry vehicle exports during 2004 declined by 15 408 units or 12,2% to 111 253 units compared to the 126 661 vehicles exported in 2003. In revenue terms, vehicle exports during 2004 are valued at around R18-billion.