The worst global downturn in the motor industry in decades has had a disastrous effect on South Africa’s local catalytic converter industry.
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Catalytic Converter Interest Group (CCIG) chairman and Johnson Matthey South Africa commercial manager Paul Thompson said that employment in the sector has reduced by 1,386 jobs, or 26.8%, since the first quarter of last year.
He added: “Export volumes are 42% below the level at the same point during 2008, but could have been even lower was it not for the various foreign governmental incentive/scrappage schemes that played out in the main export destinations.”
Thompson told South Africa’s Engineering News that the CCIG is expecting second half sales of around 5.6m units which means that 2009 sales – forecast at 9.5m – will be 45% below their 2006 peak, and 29% below 2008 levels.
Catalytic converters are South Africa’s biggest automotive component export segment, with the country currently supplying an estimated 11% of the world’s automotive catalytic converters. Around 95% of South Africa’s catalytic converters go to Western Europe.
The CCIG said it does not expect any significant market improvements over the short to medium term.
