South Africa’s Vehicle Strike
Author: mrniceguy
South Africa‘s vehicle exports stalled as a strike by members of the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) continued on Monday, an industry spokesman said.
“If you cannot service the market, then labels source from other places because, remember, there is spare capacity because of the recession,” Automobile Manufacturer Employers’ Organisation (Ameo) spokesman Harry Gazendam said.
“Once you lose those export markets, it is very hard to get them back.
“You can’t stockpile cars, because they take up space. Whatever stock they (local manufacturers) had is sold out,” said Gazendam. Ordinarily, the local automobile industry produced 3 000 units a day, half of which were for export.
“None of those vehicles has been built since last Wednesday,” said Gazendam.
Kok said that Toyota factories in different countries were competing with each other by bidding on contracts.
While present exports were under contract, the strike’s affect on productivity would likely be a consideration in future bidding.
Toyota’s output of 220 000 vehicles a year was aligned for exports as the domestic market could not absorb that many vehicles. Losing export contracts would have an adverse impact on the company.
The union said that employers were sticking to an offer of a 7% increase.