MARKET REPORT
an additional sales office based in Durban according to Business Development Manager South Africa, Russell Vandrau. “We have long-term goals to assemble original equipment in the next five-to-ten years in South Africa,” he said. “At present, SAF-Holland only distributes products, currently without any production capability or production facilities in South Africa.” On trailer trends, Vandrau explained that Performance-Based Standards (PBS) or an equivalent high productivity scheme is still a new concept in the country. “PBS trailers are proving effective in reducing the number of vehicles on the road while increasing overall payload; we expect to see a positive trend in new PBS trailers over the next few years,” he said – adding that South Africa is rich in minerals and therefore the most popular freight tasks are that of transporting ore from the mines to processing facilities or to harbours for export. “The most popular trailer builds are that of tandem / tandem interlink tippers. The tandem / tandem interlink is a vehicle configuration that is native to South Africa.” Generally, the South African trailer market has been quite volatile over the last few years, according to Vandrau, with the 2017 growth of 21 per cent levelling out to a slight negative growth in 2018. “This is mainly due to abrupt change in political leadership and investor uncertainty,” he said. “This year looks far more positive at this stage with an 11.8 per cent increase in new trailer registrations compared to the same period in 2018. SAF-Holland South Africa is a fairly new player in the trailer market in South Africa. We are however extremely positive about our future and our market share growth in the South and Southern African regions.” Despite SAF-Holland’s decade-long active presence in the South African market, Vandrau is seeing growth in business due to the innovative solutions that the equipment specialist is able to offer. With a market share of more than 50 per cent, GRW is the leading trailer tank manufacturer in South Africa according to Sales Executive, Günther Heyman.
“GRW manufacture tankers for the fuel, dry bulk, animal feed and specialised tankers for chemical transport,” he says. “We also manufacture closed body trailers (both dry and refrigerated) and curtainsiders for the general freight market. The closed body trailers are SKD kits from our partner Schmitz Cargobull in Germany, which are mounted to the locally built chassis.” GRW headquarters are in Worcester, which is approximately 120km from Cape Town in the Western Cape, and the trailer manufacturer also has a sales office in Johannesburg. There are also three service and repair branches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban respectively. Heyman said that GRW is also opening a service branch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, soon. Heyman confirms that the South African economy has been sluggish for the last few years. “The manufacturing GDP has also been retracting for the last few years with a contraction of 8.8 per cent for the first quarter,” he said. “The transport GDP was also down by 4.4 per cent for the first quarter this year. Unemployment levels are also very high at 29 per cent for the second quarter of 2019 (source: www. Statssa.gove.za). These figures point to a struggling economy and to survive in such markets GRW have invested in resource and markets outside of the country’s borders. Currently GRW are exporting vehicles to Australia, Europe and other African countries.” GRW has been a very strong player in the tanker trailer market for the past 15-20 years, according to Heyman, and it is still a core focus for the business. “We are continuing with good growth in the refrigerated market and general freight market,” he said. “The rail network has seen enormous decline over the last 20 years in South Africa and as such the freight tasks in South Africa are varied across the spectrum. Most common freight tasks are bulk material (mining and agricultural related) and containerised freight.” Heyman said that 2018 was a busy year for GRW as it launched its tipping silo range for the European market at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Hanover as well as the second generation curtainsider for local markets. “This year GRW is focussing on the existing model range, with some minor changes for the fuel tanker range and further rollouts of variations to the second generation curtainsiders,” he said. “By the end of 2019 GRW will also install its first panel production equipment (from Schmitz Cargobull) and the first, local produced panel, vehicles should be delivered in Q1 2020.” The South African economy is ripe with opportunity, particularly for trailer builders and other OEMs. Mining market conditions alone have the potential to significantly bolster what continues to be a volatile business portfolio. Meanwhile, government initiatives such as NEDLAC are key to driving positive social change to set the FAST FACT country up for future growth and industry commentators are UK-based economic forecaster, Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), asserts that South adamant that the collection and Africa is categorised by investors as one processing of platinum group of the ‘Fragile Five’, a group of emerging metals in the lucrative Bushveld markets sharing characteristics that leaves the country predisposed to external Complex is sure to lead to a shocks. This is reported to stem from a productivity revolution. www.globaltrailermag.com
dependency on a volatile portfolio that flows to finance current-account deficits.
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