KARACHI: Car sales in November rose 40 percent from the same month a year earlier, industry data showed on Friday, as lower interest rates and pickup in the economic activity helped the automobile sector recover losses.
Sales in November jumped to 11,914 units, showed data from the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA). Car sales stood at 8,524 units during the corresponding period last year. However, the sales remained lower, compared with 11,997 units sold in October 2020.
November data showed jeeps, tractors, three-wheelers and motorcycles have also shown an increase in their sales.
Syed Fawad Basir, an analyst at Topline Securities, said the market expects the car demand to grow further, owing to low interest rates and pickup in the economic activity amid pandemic.
Cumulative sales in the first five months (July-November) remained at 55,779 units, up 13.6 percent against 49,107 cars sold during the same period last year.
In November, 1300CC and above car sales showed an increase of 82 percent to 6,244 units, compared with 3,430 units sold during the same month in the previous year.
The main reason for the rise in sales was the sale of 2,338 units of Toyota Yaris during the period under review.
Sales of Toyota Corolla decreased 21.54 percent to 1,704 units against 2,172 units sold during November 2019, while the sales of Honda Civic and City went up 94 percent to 2,088 cars from 1,074 units, compared with the same period last year.
Suzuki Swift witnessed a decline in its sales as only 114 cars were sold during the period under review, compared with 184 cars sold last year.
During November, 1,000CC cars; Suzuki Cultus and Suzuki WagonR witnessed an increase in sales by 54 percent to 2,398 units against 1,555 units last year.
Under 800CC cars, the sales dropped 7.54 percent to 3,272 units in November against 3,539 units during the corresponding period last year.
Suzuki’s new Alto posted a decline of 7.88 percent in sales to 2,723 units from 2,967 units sold during the same month last year.
Buses and trucks saw a drop in sales to 315 units in November from 389 units during the same period last year, the PAMA data showed.
Sale of jeeps increased 157 percent to 869 units as against 338 units sold in November last year. The main reason was an increase of 220 percent in the sales of Toyota Fortuner to 349 units from 109 units. Pick-up sales rose to 1,750 units from 972 units in November 19.
Tractor sales increased 77 percent to 3,234 units in November from 1,825 units during the corresponding period last year.
Rickshaws and motorbikes’ sale rose 15 percent to 168,198 units in November from 146,426 units sold in the corresponding month last year.
New entrants into Pak Auto space Hyundai Nishat sold 472 units (+63 percent MoM) in November 2020, while Lucky Motor sold around 1,500 units. Atlas Honda recorded motorbike sales of 108,005 units in November 2020, up 14 percent year-on-year. In 5MFY21, sales have increased 19 percent year-on-year.
