South Africa’s new vehicle export to the rest of Africa dropped 54 percent in the first eight months of this year as a commodity slump continued to hurt some of the continent’s largest economies leading to a drop in automotive sale from the continent’s most industrialized nation since 2013.

South Africa’s exports to the rest of the continent in 2013 were 78,787 units but have fallen to 14,723 vehicles in the first eight months and is expected to close the year at a lowly 20,000 units.

Kenya, Algeria and Nigeria were the country’s leading markets for its home-made vehicles last year.

The Nigerian market was hit by the global fall in oil prices that pushed its economy into recession. It also introduced stiffer regulations alongside Algeria, that drastically made it hard to import vehicles from South Africa, Creamer Media’s Engineering News reported.

Increased production of Hillux Bakkie, a new model also led to the dip in exports.

“Model changeover almost result in a dip in production and exports,” Creamer Media’s Engineering News quoted Norman Lamprecht, executive manager of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa.

Earlier in the year, analysts forecast a fall in exports of new vehicles from Africa’s biggest economy.

Experts expected slow economic growth, interest rates and low confidence levels in the industry to hit sales that dropped by 22 percent, Business Tech reported.

South Africa is among the continent’s biggest auto-motive manufacturers alongside Morocco, Algeria and Egypt. It currently hosts assembling plants for five of the world’s leading motor manufacturers.

The industry contributes about 7.3 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and has plants for the Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Japan’s Toyota.

The country dominates sub-Saharan markets because the three other nations mostly cater for their domestic, Middle East and European markets.

The Beijing Automotive International Corp., a Chinese auto-maker agreed to put up a $759 million production plant in the nation, in August.

The fall in South Africa’s vehicle exports to the rest of Africa came at a period when the industry’s prospects in Kenya and Nigeria are starting to pick off after years of slowdown.

Volkswagen signed a deal with the Kenyan government to produce cars locally, last month, Citizen reported. The German car-manufacturer also re-opened its assembling plant in Nigeria, in July.

The two nations, alongside Ethiopia, the fastest growing economy in Africa could rival South Africa in the car-manufacturing industry.

The auto-motive market in Africa has also been projected by analysts to grow by about 550 percent in the next 15 years, Business Day Live reported.