General Motors SA added its voice to calls in the Eastern Cape for the upgrading of Port Elizabeth's airport into an international facility.

Ian Nichols, GMSA director of vehicle line platform management and exports, told delegates to the SA Automotive Conference in Port Elizabeth that upgrading of the city's airport, through extension of its runways in order to handle bigger aircraft, was a critical logistics issue for the auto sector.

Logistics costs were a critical factor affecting the competitiveness of the automotive sector export programmes, said Nichols, adding that Eastern Cape- based producers were, however, at a disadvantage.

He said Johannesburg International Airport was congested in its cargo handling division, a situation that was resulting in inefficiencies and slow handling of materials, which still needed to be transported to the Eastern Cape.

Often, the material arrived in the region about 24 to 48 hours later. This put Eastern Cape manufacturers at a disadvantage which was proving to be too costly.

In addition, he said, as the entire industry became more export focused and supplied finished vehicles to all corners of the globe, order patterns were changing.

He said a new trend whereby customers were increasingly being allowed to specify and change option content of their vehicles almost up to the date of production, was also forcing carmakers to adopt a different approach to stock management

High value and complex option items for vehicles almost always involved an element of airfreight, and therefore the cost efficient transportation of materials had become critical.

"The Eastern Cape, with its growing automotive sector, would benefit significantly from the establishment of an international cargo airport.

In order for this to happen, the PE Airport runway would need to be extended to enable 747s to land here," he said.

Eastern Province Herald 06 May 2004