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DESPITE facing numerous headwinds, including the disruptions caused by the recent flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’s new vehicle market continued on its gradual path of recovery in April.

In spite of all the associated supply chain disruptions and the fact that April was a shorter month due to all the public holidays, the industry still managed a total of 37 107 units last month.

This represents an increase of 4.3% versus April 2021. The passenger car market led the way with 26 653 unit sales and 12.9% year-on-year growth, while the LCV and bakkie sector declined by 11.9% to 9 558 units.

The medium and heavy commercial vehicle segments also showed declines of 9.4% and 4.6% respectively.

Total vehicle export sales increased by 16.0% to 30 788 units in April.

On the local sales charts Toyota, as usual, led the way by a huge margin, with total sales of 8 952 units. It was followed by Volkswagen Group (5 084), Suzuki

Auto (3 696), Hyundai (2 847) and Renault (2 400).

“Despite the trail of destruction in parts of KwaZulu-Natal following the large-scale flooding disaster causing supply chain disruptions in port, rail and road traffic as well as the temporary closure of Toyota South Africa Motors, the new vehicle market continued its road to recovery during the month of April 2022,” Automotive Business Council Naamsa said.

“Sales in the volume passenger car segment performed well, assisted by ongoing strong purchases by the vehicle rental companies, but the other segments of the market performed weaker.

“The number of public holidays normally provide fewer selling days during April which soften sales. However, in addition to the renewed impact of Covid-19, in particular in China, the global shortages of semi-conductors and the repercussions of the geo-political conflict with Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, the added shock of the flooding disaster to domestic business conditions will be felt for some time to come.

“The domestic automotive industry is expected to continue a stop-start recovery in 2022 in view of prevailing Covid-19 related supply chain disruptions, insufficient stocks, and escalating energy and transportation cost increases,” Naamsa added.

| IOL Motoring