Car sales fell 19pc in Nov

Friday, December 11, 2009
By our correspondent

KARACHI: The Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) recently released sales data for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (PCs and LCVs) for the month of November 2009.

Car sales registered a 19 per cent decline month-on-month basis. Average daily sales (on working days) in the month of November stood at 453 cars compared to 455 in the preceding month.

However, year-on-year basis, car sales grew by 15 per cent in the month of November 2009 primarily due to low base effect and higher demand from government institutions. This is despite the fact that car sales are mainly on cash basis and hardly on lease.

During the month of November, total car sales were recorded at 9,964 units as compared to 12,287 cars sold in October 2009, a decline of 19 per cent. Segment wise analysis shows that highest decline was witnessed in 1,000cc (38 per cent) followed by 1,300cc (21 per cent).

Toyota Corolla remained dominant player in 1,300cc with total sales of 3,183 compared to 3,951, down 19 per cent month on month. Like wise sales of Suzuki Mehran plunged by 25 per cent.

Company wise analysis shows that all car assemblers posted negative growth on month on month basis with cumulative sales of Pak Suzuki down by 23 per cent followed by Indus (20 per cent) mainly due to lesser working days and deteriorating security situation.

In contrast, volumetric growth remained robust at 15 per cent year on year in the month of November mainly due to low base effect. Other than base effect, higher demand from government institutions, successful launch of new Toyota Corolla model also contributed in this surge.

Corolla was up 5 per cent while Suzuki’s famous 1,000cc segment Alto and Cultus were up 238 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively as lower income persons preferred low category segment since fuel cost has gone up significantly. However, despite abnormal increase in Toyota sales during the five months og financial year 2010 meagre growth of two per cent in Suzuki’s sales led overall sales to post a growth of 8 per cent.

However, despite meagre sales growth during Jul-Nov 2009, it is expected that the overall sales may grow by 25 per cent to 123,000 in FY10 as compared to 99,000 cars sold last year.

This growth would be primarily on the back of low base effect. Last year (Jan-June 2009) Pak Suzuki sold only 2,426 cars per month, which is significantly lower than existing monthly car sales. Besides this, second half is generally much better than first half for auto assemblers. Detailed analysis shows that during last 6 years (FY04-09), car sales grew by an average 11 per cent in second half over first half stated Furqan Punjani Research Analyst at Topline Securities.