According to data from the Kenya Motor Vehicle Industry Association (KMI), businesses led by Isuzu East Africa and Scania East Africa sold 387 units to foreign markets in the financial year ending December.
This is an increase of 193 units compared to the previous year. During the period under review, most of the exports went to Tanzania (which purchased 241 units) and Uganda (146 units).
Most of the exports are commercial vehicles – pick-ups, lorries and prime movers and most are locally produced. The best-selling export model is the P360 series Scania prime mover, which moved 40 units last year.
Official distributors have said their factories are operating below their full capacity, but they may ramp up production to meet regional demand.
Isuzu East Africa CEO Rita Kawashe said, “Our capacity utilization is currently around 40 percent, where we are producing around 5,000 trucks. We have the ability to scale regionally in terms of production capacity.
He added, The East African market size is around 200,000 vehicles annually. 40,000 of these are commercial trucks and pickups. So, we assemble about 11,00 vehicles in Kenya, there is huge opportunity in the region. We have three plants in Kenya and they are operating at 40 percent of their capacity.
Speaking further on Kenya’s potential to boost the automobile industry across East Africa, Rita Kawashe noted that Kenyan automotive units have the capacity to cater to the entire East African market.
“These three plants have the capacity to supply commercial trucks to the entire East African region. Uganda and Tanzania, which have less stringent age limits, have second-hand imports comprising approximately 85 percent of their motor vehicle sales each year. Rita Kawashe said.
The government is implementing increasing incentives to promote the local automobile assembly sector, most of which are tax breaks such as 25% import duty.