Car sales increase 23 percent in July-March

KARACHI: Car sales increased 23 percent to 137,206 in the nine months of the current fiscal year over the same period a year earlier, industry data showed on Monday. 

Local assemblers sold 105,344 units in the July-March period of the last fiscal year, showed the data of the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (Pama).

A total of 15,272 cars of all categories were sold in the country in March as against 14,027 cars in February. In March last year, 16,806 cars were sold. 

The Pama data showed that the largest number of sale was recorded in cars of 1300cc or above at 8,406 units in March, up 13 percent as against 7,308 units sold in February. Toyota Corolla led the sales with 5,275 units, followed by 2,748 units of Honda cars (both Civic and City), while only 382 Suzuki Swift cars were sold.

However, sale of the large vehicles increased 6.47 percent in March over the same month a year ago when 7,862 cars were sold.

Under the category of small vehicles of 800cc and below 1,000cc category, 4,398 Suzuki Mehran and Bolan were sold in March as against 4,723 in February. These small vehicles recorded a decline of 52 percent this month as against March last year, when 6,705 units were sold.

Hassan Azhar, an analyst at Taurus Securities, told The News that a decline in the number of small vehicles was shown because the sale of Suzuki Bolan and Ravi increased in March 2015 under the Punjab Rozgar Scheme. “If you take those numbers out, there is not a big difference in the sale of Mehran,” Azhar said.

In March, 2,468 cars of 1,000cc, including Suzuki Cultus and WagonR, were sold, while only one unit of Hyundai Santro was sold.  

Chairman Adil Khan of Automotive Traders and Importers Association Karachi said car sales would have been jumped if there had been a fewer sales of imported cars. 

Khan said local assemblers have failed to provide quality vehicles. “They are not providing value for money to the purchaser,” he said. “People love Japanese cars and they come to us for the exchange.” 

Industry observers said cost of local production is higher because of the appreciation of the Yen against Rupee. 

The data showed that in March, a total of 557 trucks and 91 buses were sold. Total 60 units of jeeps, 2,255 units of pick-ups and 4,397 tractors were sold. Tractor sales recorded a growth of 30.74 percent in March as against February when 3,045 units were sold. However, tractor sales declined 8.46 percent over March last year when 4,769 tractors were sold.  The data said a total of 98,997 motorcycles and three wheelers were sold in the country during July-March of 2015/16.