S. Africa's strong auto sector creates more jobs

S. Africa’s strong auto sector creates more jobs

South Africa's strong automotive industry led the country's automakers to employ 1'110 people in the first quarter of 2005. The statistics suggest that the automotive industry's employment will show a positive return this year. The automotive industry created 1'185 new jobs last year, which was slightly higher than the total figure in the first quarter. Since the beginning of the year, South African automakers carried out additional shifts to meet the strong demand in the domestic market. National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) has recently announced that the passenger car sales rose 23% year on year and commercial vehicle sales increased 17.6%. NAAMSA also indicates that given the positive fundamentals and strong momentum, domestic new vehicle sales are expected to increase minimum 20% this year. Because of the domestic sales and carmakers' new export programs, job creation is likely to show an upward trend this year as well. Vehicle exports are projected to reach 145'500 units this year. This is significantly higher than last year's 111'253 units and the previous export record of 126'661 units in 2003. NAAMSA expects exports to increase 205'500 units by 2007. According to NAAMSA, the automotive industry can achieve its forecast of Rand 5.9 billion (around $881 million) in capital expenditure this year. This represents a more than two-fold increase compared to last year's Rand 2.2 billion and Rand 2.3 billion in 2003. The automotive industry accounts for 6-7% of South Africa's GDP (Gross Domestic Product).