Fall in car exports no cause for alarm

Standard Bank's head of vehicle asset finance‚ Sydney Soundy‚ said the drop in export sales may look concerning but it was probably to do with how vehicle makers contracted sales.

2 Aug 2013

"Manufacturers decide how many vehicles to sell domestically and as exports. I do not think export sales are doing badly. There has been healthy growth in Africa.

"In 2010‚ sales to Africa were 24% of SA's exports and in 2011‚ they climbed to 31%. Last year exports reached 45% and these figures show steady growth‚" he said.

Soundy ascribed the overall growth in total sales‚ domestic and exports‚ in July to a few reasons.

"I think we have had pre-emptive purchasing for Christmas sooner than we normally do‚" he said. "It normally begins in August or September. There has been growth in vehicles bought for later rentals and interest rates continue to remain low," he added.

He said inflation rates did not seem to have had much effect on overall vehicle buying.

WesBank motor division general manager Cyril Zhungu said consumer demand remained very positive.

"This is backed by WesBank's book data, which shows that in July Wesbank recorded the second-highest month‚ with 116‚500 applications received. This represents year-on-year growth of 9% compared with July last year‚" he said.

"I predict overall vehicles sales growth for SA to be between 5% and 6% this year," he added.

Figures released on Thursday (1 August) by the National Automobile Manufacturers Association of South Africa (Naamsa) showed new vehicle sales rose 7.5% year-on-year in July‚ from growth of 3.3% year-on year in June.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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