It may seem strange, but in the euphoria surrounding the booming domestic vehicle sales in South Africa the exports of built-up units continue to decline. Exports in the first six months of 2005 totalled 48 292 units, compared to the 51 114 units sold in the same period a year previously. This amounts to a drop of 5,6%.

However, the future for vehicle exports looks very bright in the light of Toyota South Africa's much-expanded programme that involves shipping the new Hilux pick-up not only to all countries in Africa, but also to Europe, South America, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean islands. On an annual basis, this is expected to add more than 60 000 units to South Africa's total exports.

Currently the CBU exports are skewed very much towards passenger cars - 43 289 cars and 7 825 commercial vehicles made up the year-to-date total at the end of June this year. However, with several new export programmes launched in 2005, the score will be equalled.

Far and away the most successful exporter in the first six months of 2005 was Volkswagen, with 18 053 units shipped out of the country - a whopping improvement of almost 94% over the 9 327 units exported in the first half of 2004. VW accounted for more than 37% of the total exports.

It was just the reverse with BMW, who were running out the previous E46 3-Series model range and preparing for the launch of the new E90 line-up. Their exports dropped from 18 375 to 7 950 in the two six-month periods under review, but are sure to rocket upwards again following the excellent reception for the new E90 range.

Mercedes-Benz, the country's other high volume exporter shipped out marginally less C-Class models this year than in the corresponding six months of 2004 - 12 662 units this year compared to 14 048 in 2004, continuing to account for about 30% of total vehicle exports.

Between them the three German manufacturers accounted for 83% of exports in the first half of 2005 and this was almost totally made up of passenger cars.

Toyota's exports remained fairly constant around the 5 000 unit mark for the two six-month periods, equating to about 10% of total CBU exports.

Interestingly, the main market for vehicles exported outside Africa is Japan (16154 units), followed by Australia, the United Kingdom and China.

Nissan not only retained top spot as the leading exporter into Africa with 3 288 units delivered, but this was an impressive 10% up from a year ago and equated to 57% of this market. Total industry sales into Africa totaled 5 813 units for the first half of 2005, compared to 5 550 exported in the same period a year previously.

Second-placed Toyota, saw African export sales slump from 1 378 to 1 018 per six-month period, having lost the Condor, which has gone out of production. But this should change dramatically later this year because South Africa will be the major supplier of the new Hilux to virtually all the countries in Africa in the future.

Despite its economic woes, Zimbabwe remains the biggest market for South African-manufactured vehicles, with 1 131 units shipped in the first six months of this year, compared to 837 for neighbouring Zambia and 620 for Mozambique.