Last month's vehicle exports the year's best

The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) said yesterday that although domestic new vehicle sales had shown a marginal decline year on year, export sales had staged a strong recovery.

From dropping dangerously low to just 15613 in March, exports had recovered substantially to 25027 last montgh – the highest all year.

Exports for July were 22 773.

Volkswagen Group of SA and the BMW Group exported the most vehicles last month with 6390 and 6438 respectively.

Naamsa director Nico Vermeulen said domestic new vehicle sales had continued to show resilience for the third month in a row, despite subdued economic growth.

New vehicle sales at 55722 dropped 1.4% compared with the 56489 vehicles sold in August last year, while exports reflected a gain of 18.5% compared with the 21116 vehicles exported in August last year.

"The outlook for the South African automotive sector for the balance of 2014 will remain challenging," Vermeulen said.

The domestic market was expected to register a decline of between 4% and 5% compared with last year, but a further improvement in export numbers was anticipated over the rest of this year, he said. – Cindy Preller