Johannesburg - South Africa's vehicle exports have stalled as a strike by members of the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) continued on Monday, an industry spokesperson said.
"If you cannot service the market, then labels source from other places because, remember, there is spare capacity because of the recession," Automobile Manufactures Employers Organisation (Ameo) spokesperson Harry Gazendam said.
"Once you lose those export markets, it is very hard to get them back."
This meant that a car manufacturing brand was sourcing its vehicles from factories in multiple countries.
Losing the export market for South African factories meant that other countries would gain that business, Gazendam said.
"You can't stockpile cars because they take up space. Whatever stock they (local manufacturers) had is sold out."
The local automobile industry produced 3 000 units a day, half of which were for export.
"None of those vehicles has been built since last Wednesday," said Gazendam.
Numsa workers began their strike on Wednesday. They were demanding a 15% across-the-board wage increase, a 100% lay-off payment and the scrapping of labour brokers.
They were also demanding that working hours be reduced to eight hours a day from Monday to Friday, and six months of paid maternity leave.
The union said that employers were sticking to an offer of a 7% increase.