The South African auto industry in a world of GVCs: lead firm sourcing strategies and local supplier development

This article aims to contribute to the theoretical debate on GVCs-driven industrialisation in emerging economies and to the South African policy debate by closely investigating the local manufacturing base in the South African auto industry and the prospects for its further expansion. For this purpose, it builds on more than 50 semi-structured interviews, conducted throughout 2021 with assemblers, large multinational component firms with subsidiaries in South Africa, local component manufacturers, policymakers and industry experts. The paper argues that only by combining an understanding of lead firms’ sourcing strategies and local component suppliers’ perspectives, an assessment of obstacles and opportunities for localisation is possible. In this regard, the paper provides an in-depth analysis of sourcing strategies of the assemblers and multinational component firms and a comprehensive picture of structural, policy-related, market-dependent, and capability-related issues that local component suppliers face with regards to deepening local value addition.