DAVID FURLONGER: Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water

A protracted Transnet strike could sound the death knell for companies and jobs in the SA motor industry.

Transnet workers on strike in Durban, October 12 2022. Picture: REUTERS/ROGAN WARD

Domestic new-vehicle sales are up 13.4% so far this year, and exports 14.4%. Vehicle production is also rising. But without functioning ports, they will all suffer. In 2021, the industry exported 298,020 vehicles. In its most recent quarterly review, Naamsa forecast this to rise to 345,700 this year — getting back towards the record of 387,092 set in 2019. By the end of September, the year-to-date total of 263,860 was 14.4% ahead of last year.

Add imports and exports together, and it means R375.9bn of vehicles and components moved through SA’s ports in 2021. Without unhindered two-way trade, the industry can’t function. Spare a special thought for Toyota SA, whose Durban assembly plant is trying to catch up on export orders lost during its four-month closure this year due to flooding.

Decades of broken investment promises from successive Transnet CEOs and government ministers have rendered the ports and railways incapable of meeting the needs of cash-paying customers. The US-based Ford parent company is completing a R16bn investment to build the new Ranger bakkie in SA. Production at the assembly plant in Silverton, Tshwane, which has the capacity to build 200,000 vehicles annually, is due to start soon. Most production will be exported, to more than 100 countries.

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FinancialMail /  🏆 20. in ZA

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