Nissan is considering shuttering its SA assembly plant in Rosslyn, a move that would mark a major pullback from a market it has served for more than half a century and send ripples through the country’s manufacturing sector.
The potential closure — according to Reuters, citing individuals familiar with the matter — is part of the Japanese car maker’s worldwide recovery plan that includes cutting staff by 20,000 and consolidating its production plants from 17 to 10 in the next two years.
The Rosslyn plant in Pretoria, established in 1966 and employing 1,200 people, holds a storied place in SA automotive history, having churned out everything from the iconic Datsun bakkies of yesteryear to the more recent NP200, a popular compact utility vehicle whose production ceased last year.
The potential closure of the plant, which now rolls out the Navara bakkie, underscores tough choices facing global car manufacturers as they wade through a market of slowing sales and costly transition to electric vehicles.
Nissan said in a statement on its website that reports on the potential closure of plants in SA, India and Argentina, and cutting the number of factories in Mexico, were speculative and not based on any official information of the company.
“At this time, we will not be providing further comments on this matter,” Nissan said in the statement. “We are committed to maintaining transparency with our stakeholders and will communicate any relevant updates as necessary.”
Nissan SA communications lead Thato Maphoto told Business Day she could not confirm reports that the Rosslyn factory may shut down, as consultations were still happening internally.
The potential closure also tests the SA government’s industrial policy goals.
Under an industry blueprint — or the so-called master plan — the country has been striving to lift local output and create jobs in manufacturing.
The auto sector is a crown jewel of the SA economy, contributing more than 5% to GDP, and the prospect of the Rosslyn shutdown should raise alarm bells among workers, suppliers and government officials.
At the heart of Rosslyn’s troubles is a steep decline in production and sales. In 2024, production was less than 20,000 units, a drop from the previous year’s figure of nearly 25,000 units. Once a diversified assembly line, the plant currently builds only one model: the Nissan Navara one-tonne bakkie.
That model has struggled to gain traction, with just under 2,000 locally built Navaras sold in SA and 3,101 exported to neighbouring African markets in the first four months of the year. That works out to around 1,200 units a month — a trickle by industry standards — and calls into question the commercial logic of the plant just six years after Nissan pumped R3bn into the factory, which has an annual capacity of 45,000 units.
Dilemma
Nissan’s struggle in SA mirrors the dilemma faced by the broader industry. The SA market has changed beneath Nissan’s feet. Hard-pressed consumers favour value-oriented brands, a trend that has made Chinese carmakers a new force that has redrawn the competitive landscape.
Last month Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, called for state support as the premium segment of the auto industry suffered what it called the most challenging period in a decade. Alongside the mass-market vehicle factory segment, SA is home to luxury marques such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
Rosslyn’s fate is tightly entwined with Nissan’s new CEO, Ivan Espinosa, whose aggressive turnaround steps mark a sharp break with Nissan’s strategy under his predecessor, Makoto Uchida, who had high hopes of expanding global production and refused to close domestic plants.
The carmaker’s fiscal 2024 sales stood at 3.3-million vehicles, down 42% since the 2017 business year.
In its statement on Saturday, Nissan said it had previously announced it would consolidate production of Nissan Frontier and Navara pickups from Mexico and Argentina into a single production hub centred on the Civac plant in Mexico.
With Reuters and Motoring Staff
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