Exports of built-up vehicles from South Africa soared to record heights in 2006, ending the year 28,6 per cent ahead of the 2005 figure - 179 859 units versus 139 912 units.

The big boost came from Toyota's programme to export its Hilux and Fortuner to Europe. The 49 142 units shipped was almost two and a half times more than Toyota's 20 660 units exported in 2005, and equated to 27,3 per cent of the South African CBU export market.

The export leader in 2005, Volkswagen, dropped back to third in 2006, with a 10 per cent drop in volume to 36 071 units compared with 40 045 in the previous year.

BMW, on the other hand, increased its exports by 31 per cent to 38 207 units for a 21,2 per cent share of the export cake. It is the leader in terms of passenger car exports.

Mercedes-Benz also lost some export units, shedding 7,5 per cent in share with 24 158 units being shipped in 2006, compared with 29 375 in 2005. The East London-based manufacturer is prepared to lose even more volume this year as its plant will be closed for three months in preparation for the production change to the new C-Class model.

Ford's export efforts strengthened significantly in 2006, with the volume of Focus passenger cars shipped from South Africa rising by 71 per cent to 20 479 units. Nissan, the only other significant CBU exporter, which is still mainly limited to exporting into Africa, saw its export figure rise by 36,6 per cent to 7 568 units.

Interestingly, Japan was the biggest market for South Africa's vehicle exports, taking 44 861 units in 2006, compared with the 40 505 that went to Australia and the 19 348 that were shipped to the United Kingdom.

Toyota leads in terms of exports into Africa, with a 71,5 per cent share arising from the shipment of 24 478 units into this continent. Next best was Nissan at 6 046 units - a 17,6 per cent share of this market. This means that Toyota and Nissan, who have long been the two major players in exporting to African countries, took a dominant 89 per cent share of this market last year.

The African market totalled 34 246 units in 2006 - which was more than double the 15 303 units sent into Africa by local manufacturers in 2005. The country taking the lion's share of these vehicles was Algeria, with 11 985 units. Next biggest was Zimbabwe with 3 089, only 26 units more than went to Nigeria.