Johannesburg - Despite the strong overall growth in vehicle exports this year, exports of locally built vehicles to African countries fell by 18 percent in the first half of this year to 25 512 units from 31 130 units last year.
Naamsa director Nico Vermeulen said exports in Africa were hit by technical regulatory changes, particularly in Algeria, and import duty and levy increases in Nigeria.
However, the slump in vehicle exports to African markets was offset by significant increases to other markets.
The latest quarterly review of business conditions in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry for the second quarter revealed that vehicle exports to South America increased significantly in the first half of this year to 2 998 units from 103 units last year, to Australia by 190.5 percent to 15 784 units, to Europe by 96 percent to 82 454 units, to Asia by almost 27 percent to 14 173 units and to North America by 6 percent to 28 018 units.
Vermeulen said export sales still held up well despite an uncertain global outlook and downward revisions in global growth forecasts.
Vehicle exports in the first six months of this year increased by more than 45 percent from the corresponding period last year to 168 940 units.
Naamsa has forecast a 20 percent growth in vehicle exports this year to a record of about 330 000 units.
STABLE JOB COUNT
The review revealed that total industry employment levels were stable, reflecting a marginal decline of 69 jobs to reach 31 191 jobs at the end of June.
It said an average of 29 715 people were employed by the industry last year compared with 30 121 in 2013.
Vermeulen said the recent quarterly increase in headcount was related to the higher levels of vehicle production and anticipated growth in vehicle output, principally for export markets, this year and in subsequent years.
The review reported some consolidation in capacity utilisation levels in the second quarter. Capacity utilisation for cars fell to 78.8 percent in the second quarter from 83.1 percent in the previous quarter and to 81.4 percent for light commercial vehicles from 85.6 percent in the first quarter.
However, capacity utilisation for medium commercial vehicles improved to 96 percent from 91.3 percent while that for heavy commercial vehicles was 80.1 percent from 71 percent.
Vermeulen said total new car sales in the second quarter of this year fell by 6.5 percent from the corresponding quarter last year to 105 445 units.
He said total commercial vehicle sales rose 2.5 percent to 51 219 units in the same period.
Vermeulen said the underlying trend in new car sales and commercial vehicle sales reflected a steady, gradual decline in recent months and was expected to stay under pressure over the short to medium term.
“Subdued levels of economic activity, electricity supply constraints, the impact of higher personal taxation, petrol price inflation, new vehicle price increases and higher interest rates – all continued to contribute to a deteriorating outlook for domestic new vehicle sales,” he said.
But Vermeulen said local vehicle production remained on a firm footing and the higher export sales would still support the industry’s vehicle production levels.
Business Report