The South African new vehicle market has recovered from the economic disruptions caused by the unrest in July 2021, but the knock-on effects of the disruptions, as well as the cyberattack on Transnet operations, were still visible on vehicle exports during August.This is according to the latest report by the Automotive Business Council (Naamsa) which recorded a decline of 15.6% in exports this year compared to the same period last year. The automobile industry is the country’s fifth-largest exporting sector. However, for the year-to-date, vehicle exports were still 37.7% ahead of the same period last year.According to Naamsa, Covid -19 has turned out to be the biggest obstacle to growth for the global automotive industry in recent times, with supply chain bottlenecks and dwindling new vehicle sales resulting in losses worth billions. “The most visible effect of Covid-19 is the fact that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) globally produced fewer vehicles in 2020 than in 2019. In 2019 a marked decline of 5.2% in global vehicle production was evident, ending 10 years of growth in the industry. Since then global vehicle production has declined by a massive 15.8% to reach 77.62 million vehicles, down from the 92.18 million units produced in 2019,” reads a statement.South Africa’s share of global motor vehicle production also decreased in 2020 to 0.58%, from the 0.69% in 2019. The country is still the dominant market on the African continent, accounting for 447 218 vehicles, or 62.1% of total African vehicle production of 720 156 vehicles.Despite these declines, Naamsa remains bullish about the export market, predicting a sharp rise in exports over the next two years. It attributes the strong upward momentum in vehicle exports to the robust recovery in demand in Europe, which accounts for 77.2% of the total export volume, or nearly four out of every five vehicles exported during the first half of 2021. However, although exports are 66% ahead of the corresponding period in 2020, for the first half of 2021 they remain 0.9% below the level of the first half 2019.
