RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: Sales of locally assembled cars edged up 16 per cent year-on-year to 161371 units in July-March, Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) said on Wednesday.
The local car assemblers (including LCVs, Vans and Jeeps) managed to sell 22,380 units in March 2018, up by 9 percent YoY. However, a nominal decline of 1 per cent was witnessed in March 2018.
Rai Omer Basharat, an analyst of Topline said that they foresaw the trend to continue fuelled by CPEC, higher road connectivity, low financing rate, robust growth in LSM sector and change in enforcement of axle load limit per truck on highways.
The change in import procedure, availability of auto finance at lower rates and demand from online ride hailing services have contributed to demand in outgoing month. Cumulatively, industry sales during 9MFY18 exhibited 22 percent YoY growth to 192,734 units, he added.
According to assemblers-wise details, the sales of Honda outperformed peers, posting 41 per cent YoY and 19 per cent MoM growth, depicting highest monthly sales in company’s history at 5,344 units due to success of recently revamped City, strong demand for Civic and rebound in sales of SUV variant BRV. The sales were up 39% YoY to 39,013 units in 9MFY18.
The sales of Pak Suzuki Company witnessed slowdown after 8 months of double digit growth, which only grew by 4 per cent YoY in March 2018 as price conscious models exhibited flat sales growth, however demand picked up for higher price variants Cultus up 14 per cent and Swift up 13 per cent YoY. The sales were up 27 per cent YoY to 107,294 units in 9MFY18.
The Indus Motors Company lagged behind peers with decrease of -2pc/14pc YoY/MoM as it continues to face capacity constraints, though in 9MFY18, unit sales are up by 1pc YoY.
Tractor sales continue to exhibit upward trajectory with sales growing by 15 per cent YoY in March 2018. Al-Ghazi Tractors witnessed 23 per cent YoY growth. During 9MFY18, tractor sales reached to 49,034 units, up by 27 per cent YoY.
Truck & Bus sales of PAMA member companies in March 2018 remained robust growing by 40 per cent YoY, while during 9MFY18 sales rose 18% YoY.
Motorcycle/3-wheeler sales Mar 2018 have increased by 27 per cent YoY. Atlas Honda outperformed peers, posting 27 per cent/28 per cent YoY/MoM. These are the highest monthly sales in history of the company at 108,736 units. In 9MFY18, the sales are up 19 per cent YoY due to rising disposable income of lower middle class.
