Archive d’étiquettes pour : Automotive

Slide of the month (SOTM) May. The aftermarket for commercial vehicles in South Africa

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Being Africa´s most developed country, the automotive aftermarket in South Africa presents itself with its unique profile, own challenges and opportunities: South Africa is one of the very few African countries with a relatively strong base of local automotive parts manufacturers. A vast variety of international brands have long set up shop, some established their own offices and warehouses. The local motor vehicle fleet of more than ten million is one of Africa´s biggest but has recently only grown very slowly. Together with a sluggish economy, the parts market has become relatively competitive with firms fighting hard for market shares.

The already existing volumes, together with a market that – in a global comparison – still has space for significant growth, open interesting opportunities for international firms.

Get in touch if you would like to know more about opportunities in Africa´s automotive aftermarkets!

africon and Wolk After Sales Experts join forces for Africa

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We are proud to announce that africon GmbH and Wolk After Sales Experts are joining forces for Africa.

Both German consulting companies are leaders in their respective fields, namely global automotive after sales industry and African business environment. Together Wolk and africon will be able to provide clients with comprehensive information and consulting support across the continent.

Since the beginning of its operations in 1994 Wolk After Sales Experts has grown into a consulting powerhouse well known to both vehicle manufacturers and independent aftermarket operators. Thanks to carefully built network of partners across Europe, Wolk monitors automotive markets in 35 countries – from Portugal to Russia and from Norway to Turkey.

“In one world economy our clients need support not only in Europe, but on the other markets as well. Our cooperation with africon will allow us to include data from Sub-Saharan Africa into our AFTER SALES ACCESS aftermarket business intelligence tool. This will be a major asset for any automotive company aiming at creating or improving its distribution network in Africa” explains Zoran Nikolic, Managing Director at Wolk After Sales Experts.

africon GmbH, established in Germany in 2011, currently has offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. The company employs a team consisting of 7 nationalities speaking more than 10 local languages while running a network of more than 50 consultants in the African region. Over the past 5 years africon conducted more than 20 automotive projects in Africa.

“The African automotive markets have been growing with more than 6% over the past years and offer great chances for global operating companies. After various independent aftermarket projects in Africa, africon could obtain significant data and know-how on African markets like Nigeria and Kenya which we are happy to offer to the excellent network of Wolk After Sales Experts” states Marc-Peter Zander, CEO & Partner at africon GmbH. Mr. Zander will be also a keynote speaker during upcoming Aftermarket Forum 2019: Going global! It is a top-level automotive industry event taking place on April 17th in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and organized by Wolk After Sales Experts. This year’s edition will focus on market snapshots of different regions of the world and Sub-Saharan Africa will be covered by the representative of africon.

In day-to-day business operations Wolk After Sales Experts and africon together will provide clients with exclusive market research, market intelligence and consulting projects in African countries.

africon’s editorial publication in the ITA journal

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last October africon published its first editorial addressing the future of the Steel industry in East Africa at the 3rd journal edition of the International Tube Association. The article started by highlighting how East Africa distinguishes itself by economical growth and political stability in the region and being the least dependent on primary commodities such as gold or oil in comparison with other african regions. The East African region was projected to capture the highest regional economic growth over the past year in Africa. The article then went in depth to analyse those macro-economic factors and focused on the drivers of steel industry that promote economic growth in Africa and especially in East Africa.

Now you can read the full version of the editorial here or download it as a white paper

Download Whitepaper

Slide of the month (SOTM) February. Automotive parts imports in sub-Saharan Africa

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Automotive parts import Sub-Saharan Africa.

Let us look at the automotive market in sub-Saharan Africa narrowing down to the aggregate value of three main automotive service parts which are: Filters (consisting of air filters for internal combustion engines, as well as Oil or petrol filters for internal combustion engines), Spark plugs, and Brake parts. The total combined import value of these automotive parts in sub-Saharan Africa was $753 million in year 2017. Brake parts recorded the highest import value worth $388 million which is 52% of the total import value of the three selected automotive parts combined, while spark plugs were the least of the imports valued at $58 million.

Based on our analysis of the available data on automotive parts imports in sub-Saharan Africa, we found that South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, Kenya, and Ghana were the top five importers of filters, spark plugs and brake plugs into sub-Saharan Africa in the year 2017. South Africa being the largest market, accounted for 47% of these automotive parts imports worth $355 million, while Ghana being the fifth largest market was worth $21 million.

The major export partners were China, Germany, South Africa, Belgium and USA. However, the data from year 2007 shows that Germany was the largest exporter of these automotive parts to the Sub Saharan Africa region until 2013 when China took over as the largest exporter to the region. Brake parts were also the largest exports (of the three parts) from China and Germany while Filters were the largest exports from South Africa, Belgium and USA.

Slide of the month (SOTM) January. The automotive parts market in Nigeria

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SOTM. January

The Nigerian automotive industry appears to be an interesting market, as our research on the automotive parts market shows that the market size is worth USD 4.4bn or more.

The total vehicles in operation in Nigeria is currently estimated at 12.7 million, and Nigerian drivers spend an average of USD 350 on automotive parts per year.

Interviews conducted with various automotive experts in Nigeria also confirmed that the market for service parts accounts for the biggest share of the automotive market.

Automotive projects conducted by africon

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Over the past years, more and more automotive firms have shown increasing interest in Africa. Even though OEMs like VW and Nissan have dominated the news with their announcement of establishing assembly plants in Africa, the largest immediate automotive business potential lies elsewhere: in the automotive aftermarket.

With more than 12,7 million vehicles on the road in Nigeria, more than 6 million in Egypt and almost 2 million in Kenya, more and more automotive parts are sold in Africa. The main challenge especially for global aftermarket leaders from Europe and Japan: the sector requires large amount of data to efficiently and effectively increase sales. With data availability in Africa being a major challenge, africon has successfully plugged this gap and supported aftermarket firms from around the world and in different product segments on their Africa strategy.  Amongst other points, we supported firms with market sizes, details on vehicles in operation, suitable import partners and even research on specific part numbers. For the upcoming years, africon has set an increased focus on the sector and expects more companies to follow current early movers to the continent.

Slide of the month (SOTM) October. Automotive industry in sub-Saharan Africa

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In 2017, we analysed the market for automotive filtration in Kenya and Tanzania in detail. During the project, 60 senior level industry players from authorities, key automobile traders and leading parts distributors, more than 300 consumers, around 70 workshops and 100 parts traders in Kenya and Tanzania were interviewed.

In terms of vehicles in operation (VIO), Kenya and Tanzania belong to the countries with the highest stock of VIO in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Through a fast-growing local assembly industry, Kenya promises to stay the local automotive hub in East Africa. This also reflects in a growing local spare parts industry ranging from automotive batteries to tires. Also the automotive market in Tanzania, with a first local assembly line for agricultural vehicles in place and various spare parts manufacturers operating successfully, promises to continue growing in the next years.

Apart from the activities in Kenya and Tanzania, africon has been active in the Nigerian automotive market since 2015. With the new insights from Kenya and Tanzania gathered in 2017, the africon expertise regarding the African automotive market grew decisively.

 

Slide of the month (SOTM) June. Automotive Kenya vs. Nigeria

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In two different projects, both concerning the automotive industry in Kenya and Nigeria, africon has been conducting more than 65 interviews with vehicle assemblers, coach builders, repair garages and distributors of vehicles. Aim was to understand the current maintenance of windscreens in Africa to develop a go-to market strategy for a leading adhesives company.

These interviews as well as the analysis of general market data shows that the size of the automotive market in Kenya and Nigeria is quite different, which comes naturally when looking at the size of the population (46,05 million in Kenya vs. 182,2 million in Nigeria). But the proportion of new vs. second hand vehicles is very much the same.

Having 75% and 80% of second hand vehicles cruising the streets in Kenya and Nigeria the market for spare parts as well as chemical materials needed in the repair sector – like adhesives, sealants, paints, etc – is huge.

 

 

Slide of the month (SOTM) April. Spark plug market Nigeria

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Within a large independent aftermarket (IAM) project in the automotive sector for Nigeria, africon GmbH had the chance to interview more than 50 experts and found that the IAM market in Nigeria is strongly dominated by fake products. A good example is the spark plug market where fakes in 2015 were at 65% but increased to almost 80% in 2016. According to an expert in the IAM market in West Africa, Chinese suppliers have lowered the quality of fakes to meet the lower buying power of Nigerian clients. The current market leader is NGK from Japan with a strong distribution by Asahi Brands. Other brands are distributed through various players e.g. Hydrotrans but also by OEMs e.g. Bosch.

Slide of the month (SOTM) December. Tractor brands in Nigeria

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The slide of the month December illustrates the market shares of different tractor brands in Nigeria which was researched in a large filter project over the past 6 months. The market leader is New Holland with about 20% of the present tractors in the country, followed by John Deere and Mahindra. Different Chinese products also take a big part of 20% on the market and are partly locally produced within a SKD production. As africon GmbH we believe that the market in Nigeria will continue to grow strongly as various initiative programs by the government will drive local production and imports.