WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-28 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
[Our Motor industry is slowing down due to power and sales issues. Some are more affected than others. Jan]
By Margie Inggs
Toyota’s assembly plant in Durban, one of the biggest employers in the city, has not followed Volkswagen and Nissan SA in implementing short time because of its export order of 147 000 units a year.
Like other motor manufacturers, however, the plant will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday this week to give its 9 000-strong staff time off. It will reopen on Monday, May 5, after the public holidays.
Gerry Motley, senior vice-president of manufacturing, said staff were normally given off public holidays. Scheduled maintenance, which could not be performed during production, would take place during the shutdown.
“Six working days will be lost, including the public holidays, but production will not be affected as output was increased beforehand to make up for lost time,” he said.
Ferdi de Vos, Toyota SA marketing manager, said that new passenger vehicle sales had dropped by 24,1 percent in March compared with the same period last year, but that sales of Toyota’s passenger brands had contracted by only 15 percent. “Our market share also increased by 2,3 percent in this segment,” he said.
The decline in new vehicle sales has affected motor manufacturers that rely heavily on the domestic market, but those with large export orders have been largely unaffected.
De Vos said there had been a global downturn of 20 percent in the new passenger vehicle market but Toyota had experienced only about a 10 percent decline in its worldwide sales.
Bill Stephens, Volkswagen SA general manager for communications, said of the 104 000 cars it planned to produce in 2008, 40 000 were destined for export.
He said that between March 20, the Thursday before Easter and Monday, May 5, the plant would have been closed for only eight working days.
Stephens said it was difficult to quantify the exact reduction in volume but the factory produced between 300 and 400 units a day. “However, no jobs have been affected.”
Despite the drop in the domestic market due to high interest rates and household debt levels, that make it difficult for consumers to buy cars, the export market remained strong.
“We do not see any relief this year but hope we will not have to implement further short time.”
Nissan SA director of human resources, Henry Grimbeek, said the Rosslyn plant had closed every alternate Monday and Friday in February and March and this was forecast to continue during April and May.
The current daily average schedule is at 150 units a day. Grimbeek said, “No jobs have been affected but, due to short time, labour’s pay has been docked by 6 or 8 hours a week.”
Rella Bernardes, Ford’s general manager of communications, said the company had not ruled out implementing short time but no decision had been taken yet. The company sells the bulk of its production on the domestic market, exporting 30 percent.
Neither Mercedes SA, which exports 50 percent of its production to the US, nor BMW, which exports the bulk of its production, have had to implement short time. Both will close this week, but said this would not affect production.
Tony Twine, a motor industry analyst and director of Econometrix, said the economic cycle would change when interest rates started falling but this would not start until the second half of 2009 “at the earliest”.
Roger Pitot, executive director of the National Association of Automotive Components and Allied Manufacturers (Naacam), said “Component suppliers will shut this week and one member has indicated the closure will cost him R50-million.”
Johan van Zyl, president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa), said, “The domestic market is under pressure but exports are booming. This will assist in reducing the industry deficit.”