South Africa got commitments on the part of Chinese and Indian car manufacturers aiming to make evolve their semi-dismantled assembly operations (SKD) towards manufacturing on a large scale, announced on Thursday the South African Trade Minister, Parks Tau, while actors in the sector are calling for increased local production.

The government collaborates with multinationals like Toyota and Ford — as well as with their suppliers — for supporting the struggling automotive sector, which is facing a fall in production, to strong import competition, to uncertainty pricing and an increase in the costs of transitioning to vehicles electric, reported Reuters.

At a recent conference on Automotive, industry leaders have warned against a potential deindustrialization if imports are not controlled, and called for stronger domestic production.

Tau indicated that several companies currently operating SKD factories in South Africa have committed to adopt CKD configurations (completely disassembled). In this system, the vehicles are built from parts shipped to the factory, rather than from partially assembled kits.

The Chinese car manufacturer BAIC in is an example: he is currently assembling his X55 model in SKD in Gqeberha. This plant is expected to switch to all-CKD production.

In addition, the Indian company Mahindra is currently assembling SKD pick-ups in Durban. Earlier this year, she partnered with the Industrial Development Corporation to study the possibility of building a large-scale manufacturing plant in Africa from the South.