Vehicle production at Nissan South Africa's (NSA's) plant in Rosslyn, near Pretoria, could return to around 45 000 units this financial year, after falling well short of this target in 2008 as vehicle demand slumped in the face of a global recession.

The company produced 33 000 units last year, and 45 000 units in 2007 - the plant had a single-shift capacity of 50 000 units a year.

Plant manager Neil Craddock said on Friday that, despite the depressed market conditions domestically, the expansion in output was supported by new export opportunities, as well as solid demand for the new NP200 pick-up. There was also growing demand for the Renault Sandero, which was built at the plant, under the Renault Nissan global alliance.

"If you look at this financial year, I think we are one of the few manufacturers in the South African market that is actually forecasting a higher volume than we did last year, because of these opportunities."

The Rosslyn plant produces the Nissan Tiida, Livina and the Sandero passenger range on a multimodel line. The NP200 is also produced on this line.

However, the NP300, or Hardbody, which comprises around 50% of vehicle production, and which is exported into Africa, is built on a separate commercial vehicle line.

The Hardbody currently presented the greatest export opportunity, but long-term plans also included the export of the NP200.

A new bumper-moulding and paint facility had also recently been inaugurated at Rosslyn, which could result in NSA entering this component export market.

Craddock said that a key challenge lay in the materials management of local and overseas suppliers. The company had around 100 local suppliers.

Now that the company was sourcing from 16 countries, and no longer from Japan alone, production was often hampered by long lead times and packing configurations which were at odds with production line requirements.

Operational challenges closer to home also spilled over to the manufacturing arena.

"When it comes to local suppliers, one of the things we are really battling with is some of the suppliers' inability to meet the delivery expectations," explained Craddock.

He added that some financially distressed suppliers had also been forced to "cut back so far" that they faced supply problems even when only one or two people were absent from the organisation.

The Nissan plant currently employed 1 300 people, with 150 workers having been retrenched during the downturn.