NISSAN SA TO EXPORT TO ALGERIA

NISSAN SA TO EXPORT TO ALGERIA

Nissan South Africa has secured a 600-unit-a-month export order from Algeria for its Hardbody 1-ton pick-up. The pick-up units were previously supplied to Algeria from Nissan Motor in Japan.

Pat Senne, a Nissan SA spokeswoman, confirmed last week that the contract award was signed in March. It was open-ended and did not have a fixed term. She said a strategic decision had been taken to relocate the production to Nissan SA. It was the company's objective to become the exporter of choice of the pick-up model to the Nissan distributor in Algeria. The order formed part of the opportunity obtained by Nissan SA to export Hardbody vehicles into Mediterranean countries.

"We have secured orders of 600 to 800 a month in the period (from) June 2009 to March 2010," Ms Senne said. "We continue to work with our parent company to secure further agreements that will extend our exports in this region." She stressed that Nissan SA was responsible for the export of vehicles to sub-Saharan Africa from South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Europe and Korea. She said exports by Nissan SA from all source countries totalled 23 784 units in its last financial year to March, with 8 200 of these vehicles shipped from Nissan SA. A total of 22 000 vehicles were forecast to be exported by Nissan SA in this financial year.

Last year South Africa's motor industry exported a record 284 211 locally produced vehicles, 66 percent more than in 2007. But vehicle exports are projected to decline this year by 33 percent to 191 500 units, largely because of the severe slump in international demand for new vehicles caused by the global credit crunch. 

Source BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE

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