SEMA News recently talked with Stuart Charity, executive director of the nearly 30-year-old Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA), and Ben Bartlett, the AAAA’s national membership manager, about the Australian specialty-equipment market amid increasingly positive news that Australia is well on its way to an economic recovery.

There are indications that the automotive industry there has begun to rebound, and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries reported growing vehicle sales—with particularly strong SUV sales—and overall sales for 2009 were expected to reach up to 900,000.

Spurred by tax rebates for business purchases of vehicles and increased purchasing as growing confidence by consumers increases, the sales gap will be much less than feared just several months ago, although the total isn’t expected to reach the record-setting 1.05 million achieved in 2007. [Read More]