October is spanner in the works for target
New-vehicle exports may miss their 2017 target after a miserable October in which shipments were hit by Durban’s deadly storms, and Volkswagen SA cut production of its best-selling Polo car.
New-vehicle exports may miss their 2017 target after a miserable October in which shipments were hurt by Durban’s deadly storms, and Volkswagen SA cut production of its bestselling Polo car.
The domestic market, however, is on track to exceed expectations after midyear jitters that prompted fears of a sales meltdown.
At 28,229, October’s exports were 8.3% lower than a year earlier but, more significantly, 22% behind September 2017, when 36,341 South African-made vehicles left the country.
Durban’s weather had a big say in the export slump. Fierce winds and flooding caused the harbour, SA’s main export gateway, to operate at reduced capacity for several days. For the same reason, production at Toyota SA’s nearby Prospecton assembly plant was affected. October exports of 3,611 vehicles, almost exclusively Hilux bakkies, were more than 30% down on September’s 5,205.
Volkswagen’s drop was even more dramatic. It fell 60%, from 5,464, to 2,177. In October, the company’s Uitenhage plant, in the Eastern Cape, started running down production of the export-focused Polo and its Vivo sister, in preparation for new models in early 2018.
Thousands of completed vehicles have been stockpiled to meet demand during the changeover, but spokesman Matt Gennrich said most would be for South African buyers.
The upshot is that confident industry forecasts of another record export year have now been put at risk. At 284,460, aggregate exports for the first 10 months of 2017 were 3.4% behind 2016’s 294,620.
It will take a huge effort in the next few weeks to overtake last year’s 345,000 total.
The domestic market, however, continued its second-half recovery in October. Car sales grew 7.9% from a year earlier, from 32,722 to 35,316. Sales of all vehicles, including trucks and buses, improved 4.6%, from 48,782 to 51,037.