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A plan to shift imports of grey vehicles destined for neighbouring countries to the Maputo terminal is being developed by SA’s automotive industry, government entities and JSE-listed Grindrod. The aim is to prevent these vehicles from illegally remaining in South Africa.
Thato Magasa, vice-president for retailing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) at automotive business council Naamsa and MD of Mitsubishi Motors South Africa, told an SA Auto Week conference on Wednesday there are still about 55 000 grey vehicle imports coming into South Africa a year.
Magasa said these grey imports are costing the fiscus an estimated R80 billion a year in total.
Speaking later on the sidelines of the conference, Magasa told Moneyweb the number of these vehicles coming into the SA market has been increasing, and admitted the biggest problem facing the automotive industry is the used vehicle terminal in Durban, which “allows these vehicles to seep into the South African market”.
Magasa said conversations are taking place between Transnet and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) about how to deal with this issue.
“At this point in time, everybody agrees that they are not good for country, not good for the South African consumer and they are not good in terms of safety and security because these vehicles go under cover. So there is a big need to change the landscape in terms of where these vehicles are coming from and how can we keep [them] out of the country.”
Magasa stressed that these grey vehicle imports and used vehicles are not intended for the South African market but for South Africa’s neighbouring countries.
This is because these vehicles have not been through a homologation process in South Africa to ensure they meet the country’s safety and other standards, he said.
“We can’t measure these vehicles. They are not meant for our nation when they are coming into our country and unfortunately it’s something that we need to work on to stop,” he said, adding that the response from government entities and other stakeholders to this problem has been “quite positive”.
Magasa said there was a conversation with Transnet and Grindrod during the last roundtable discussion the automotive industry had in Durban about a month ago about this problem.
Grindrod said it is willing to accept the vehicles into the Maputo terminal and able to perhaps shift the importation of these vehicles from South Africa to protect the domestic automotive industry a bit better, he added.
Attempts to obtain comment from Grindrod were unsuccessful.
Grindrod has a concession to operate certain facilities at the Port of Maputo, including a car terminal that is a competitor to Transnet’s car terminal facilities in Durban and Gqeberha (formerly known as Port Elizabeth).
Magasa said different suggestions are being put forward to deal with the grey vehicle import problem and “we’re seeing an eagerness from some stakeholders to deal with it”.
He conceded that there has not been any progressive implementation to deal with it yet.
Have ports, must support. – Moneyweb
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