Sales of passenger carsremain flat at 123,391 units

KARACHI: Passenger cars sale remained almost flat at 123,391 units in the first seven months of the current fiscal year of 2018/19 compared with 123,356 in the corresponding period last fiscal year as multiple price hikes held sales back.

Analyst Daniyal Adil at Topline Securities said further slowdown in auto sales is expected due to deteriorating economy as well as multiple price hikes in the past 14 months.

In July-January, a total of 61,993 cars of 1,300 cc and above were sold as against 55,730 cars in the corresponding period last year, showing an increase of 11.2 percent. In 1,000cc category, a total of 32,123 Suzuki Cultus and Wagon R were sold, higher 13.1 percent year-on-year.

Sale of 800cc cars, however, dropped 34 percent to 29,275 units during the period under review from 39,235 units. There was significant decline in the sale of Mehran to 19,535 units from 26,543 units.

A total of 19,353 cars were sold in January 2019, down 3 percent year-on-year, while sales were up 20 percent as against 16,141 in December 2018.

“(This was) despite supportive measures by the government in recent economic reform package (Jan-19),” Adil said.

The analyst said auto sales were down year- on-year in January, but up on month-on-month basis primarily due to seasonal factors. “Furthermore, anticipated price hike due to five percent devaluation in rupee during November and December 2018 might have also incentivised purchase of cars, we believe.”

Indus Motors continued to report year-on- year growth of 16 percent in January due to a strong order book led by sales of Corolla variants, up 26 percent year on year.

Sales of Fortuner and Hilux variants declined 45 percent and five percent year on year, respectively.

Honda grew its sales by 3 percent year on year due to increase in Civic and City sales volumes by four percent. BR-V continued its downward sales trend with a fall of 2 percent year on year.

Pak Suzuki (PSMC) continued to report year-on-year decline in sales, down 15 percent in January 2019 after some respite in December 2018.

PSMC sales volumes fell year-on-year in every month since August 2018 except for December 2018.

Sales decline was led by Mehran, Bolan, Swift and Ravi variants, down by 37, 27, 28 and 11 year on year, respectively.

Brokerage Topline Securities’ data showed that sales of tractors sharply fell 27 percent to 27,969 in the July-January period. Tractor sales stood at 38,173 in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Tractor sales of Millat Tractors decreased 22 percent to 18,060 during the period under review. Al-Ghazi Tractors recorded a 35 percent decrease to 9,647 tractors, while Orient registered a 96 percent increase in sales to 262 during the period under review.

In January, sales of tractors were down 41 percent year-on-year, but up 433 percent month-on-month.

Sales of motorbikes and three-wheelers slid six percent to 1.018 million in 7MFY2019. Atlas Honda recorded one percent decrease in sales to 638,903. Pak Suzuki registered a 15 percent increase in two-wheelers sales to 13,738. Sazgar Engineering Works logged a 27 percent fall in sales of three-wheelers to 9,624.

In January, sales of motorbikes and three-wheelers decreased 13 percent year-on-year and increased five percent month-on-month to 146,806.

The brokerage data further showed that sales of trucks and bus fell 20 percent to 4,373 in the first seven months. Hino recorded a 34 percent decrease in its sales to 1,598. Master measured a 10 percent decrease in sales to 860, while Isuzu registered a nine percent decrease in its sales to 1,915 during the period under review.

In January, sales of trucks and bus fell 36 percent year-on-year and increased 28 percent month-on-month to 602 units.