Car sales up 22.47pc in January

KARACHI: Cheap credit continued to boost car sales in January, which rose 22.47 percent on month-on-month and passed 18,000 marks, industry data showed on Wednesday.

According to the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) monthly data , a total of 107,907 cars were sold during the first seven months of FY16, up by 30.96 percent against 74,497 units sold in the corresponding period of FY15.

A total of 18,083 cars of all categories were sold out in the country against 14,019 cars in December. In January last year, 15,770 cars were sold out and the current data shows an increase of 12.8 percent on year-on-year basis.

An increase of around 22.5 percent is not very surprising, as consumers put a hold on buying during December, waiting for the new model in January, said one dealer.

The largest number of sales were recorded in cars of 1300cc or above at 8,903 units, up by 37.42 percent against 5,571 units sold in December 2015. Toyota Corolla led the sales with 5,544 units followed by 3,015 units of Honda cars -both Civic and City- while only 344 Suzuki Swift cars were sold in this category.

However, sale of the large vehicles declined by 5.6 percent compared with January 2015 when 9,401 cars were sold.

Suzuki Mehran and Bolan were the only cars under the category of small vehicles of 800cc and below 1,000 cc category selling 7,061 cars against 6,060 cars in December. These small vehicles recorded a huge increase of 32.7 percent against January last year.

A dealer said that an increase in the sales of small vehicles compared with sales of January last year and a decline in the sales of new cars shows more interest towards small cars. However, he said, more vehicles were purchased through bank finance as banks remained active during this period.  During January, 2,119 cars of 1,000cc were sold that included Suzuki Cultus and Suzuki WagonR, while only one unit of Hyundai Santro was sold.

One dealer said that import of used Hybrid cars have also affected sales of the 1,300cc and above cars in the country.

Karachi Commissioner Syed Asif Haider Shah, during a meeting with industrialists on Tuesday, said that an average 409 vehicles were being registered in Karachi on daily basis. Roads in the city needed improvement, he said, adding that he was working on that issue with the Sindh government.

According to the data of used cars, imports continue to thrive unabated as between January and December 2015, a total of 34,765 passenger cars were imported, including 25,000 small cars, 4,036 SUVs and 2,456 pickup/vans. The total imports of used vehicles last year were 41,257 units.

Almost 5,000 units of hybrids competing with Civic and Grande were imported in 2015, while over 4,000 SUVs were imported affecting the locally produced Fortuner, of which around 700 units were sold during the period.

Experts believe government would have to change the mindset where automotive manufacturing was discouraged and trade encouraged. This not only hurt the industry but consumers too who are at the losing end due to higher prices, non availability of spares, after sales service, and technical support.