Johannesburg - A disappointing November put the brakes on any momentum built up in dealer showrooms over the last few months.
Sales of new passenger vehicles in November improved slightly compared to last year, but were down on October. Including commercial vehicles, the South African market is now less than half the size it was at the height of boom in 2006.
One positive for the local industry is plans by local assemblers to up production in 2010, mainly for export.
New vehicle sales figures for November, released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa), showed total market sales for November dropped 5.1% to 34 295 units compared to last month.
November new registrations were down 6.7% on the same period last year. Year-to-date sales indicate a 27.1% decline, the market reaching 364 812 new vehicles sales compared to the 500 562 recorded to November last year.
Passenger car sales declined 7.2% compared to October 2009. The light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment was the only one to show any form of resilience, with just 30 sales less than October. However, LCV sales dropped 22% on November 2008, a trend strongly opposed to the 4.6% gain in sales by passenger cars over the same period.
Importers of Kia and Hyundai, AMH, again provided a fillip to the market. Without this strong showing, November car sales would have been down 3.9% compared to last year. Sales to car rental also underpinned the market, constituting 11.8% of the total.
Export contracts
Nissan South Africa announced last month it is looking to ramp up vehicle production at its Rosslyn manufacturing plant near Pretoria to 45 000 units this financial year, from 33 000 the previous year.
Nissan SA manufactures the popular Renault Sandero, NP200 and Hardbody bakkies at the plant. France's Renault and Japan's number two vehicle company have a global alliance.
Greg Field, Nissan SA's corporate and finance director, told reporters last week the firm is in early negotiations with its parent company about a possible export contract for African and Middle Eastern markets to bring local production to more that 50 000 units. This figure is the minimum production requirement under government's new industry development programme (APDP), set to replace the current incentive programme in 2012.
Volkswagen of South Africa (VWSA) will export 55 000 new generation Polos next year, doubling this year's export volume of 28 000 units, of which 19 000 are new Polos.
In 2008, exports from the company's Uitenhage plant amounted to about 40 000 units, up from the roughly 35 000 vehicles recorded in 2007. The new Polo, awarded 2010 European Car of the Year status this week, will be introduced to the local market in early 2010.
VWSA's export programme follows a four-year, R3.5bn investment programme, R500m of which will be spent next year. A major part of the investment programme is designed to increase the local content of vehicles. The new Polo would carry 70% South African components, up from less than 40% in the current range.
Year-to-date exports of passenger vehicles from local manufacturers - including Toyota, BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen - are down 36% on last year, reaching just over 117 400. Only 40 400 light commercial vehicles have been exported in 2009, down more than 47%.
- Fin24.com