General Motors is redoubling its efforts to capture a greater market share in Africa, threatening the business of leading Japanese automakers in the region, Maureen Kempstone Darkes, GM’s president for Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, told Kyodo News.
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She reportedly said the integration of three East African nations – Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania – to form the East African Community (EAC) trading bloc has helped GM take a bigger market share in the region.
However, the automaker’s operations in Africa are being hampered by the growing market for used vehicles coming from Japan and the Middle East, the report noted.
”The flood of used vehicles coming into East Africa is a threat to our ability to sustain and further develop a new vehicle industry,” Darkes told the news agency.
Kyodo News noted that the three countries agreed to implement a customs union in January 2005, abolishing an anti-dumping duty on imported used vehicles – such vehicles from Japan and the United Arab Emirates are a common draw for average income earners in East Africa who cannot afford new cars.
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By GlobalDataBut critics reportedly said the used vehicles are a threat to the environment as well as to the development of the local motor industry.
Ktodo News said GM has operated a plant in Kenya since 1975, where it assembles vehicles and exports them to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and other countries in the region.
The Africa and Middle East region reported total automotive sales of 1,651,099 units in 2003, a decrease of 53,906 units from the previous year, and GM’s total vehicle sales in Africa and the Middle East were 127,320 units, a market share of 7.7%, the report added.
