General Motors SA is to invest R700-million in its Port Elizabeth plant to tool up for assembly of the next generation of Isuzu KB bakkies and Corsa Utilitys.


Edgar Lourencon, GMSA's president and MD, said on Friday it was also investigating the possibility of expanding to three its current two production platforms.


This forms part of its strategy to meet the 50 000 units a year production threshold by 2013, in the new SA Automotive Production and Development Programme to qualify for the programme's incentives.


Lourencon said local automakers would not meet the production threshold without a strong export programme.  In 2009 GMSA exported only about 2000 vehicles, largely to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique with 2010's figures are expected to be similar.


However, Lourencon said GMSA's strategy differed from those of other local automakers in that it wanted to focus on vehicles that sold very well in the domestic market and had good export potential.


"We're more focused on the domestic market," he said. "That's why, instead of having one platform with huge volumes, we will very likely end up with three that do very well locally but allow us incrementally to have an export business."


Lourencon said the company was working on meeting the APDP production threshold by exploiting growth opportunities in African markets. It would naturally grow its production through new-generation products and might add products to its existing platforms

'We're more focused on the domestic market' confirmed Lourencon.He said there was no doubt that an automaker had to be part of the government incentive programme to justify its completely-knocked-down production operations in SA and hoped the government would take into consideration that there were aspects out of the industry's control.


"It's important to have that confidence," he said. "We don't have 100 percent control of particular export markets, for instance."


Lourencon anticipates a decision on a third production platform by the middle of 2010. - Business Report