Car sales up 46% this year

KARACHI: Car sales increased 46 per cent this year as the economy recovered and people had more car financing options, analysts said.

Sales increased to 109,637 units in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2010 as compared to 75,293 units in the same period last year, according to data released by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association.

“In the car sales cycle, there is an uptrend and a downtrend, this is the uptrend period as car sales were down last year,” said JS Global Capital’s automobile analyst, Syed Atif Zafar.

People who resisted temptation by not buying a car over the last couple of years, finally ended up purchasing, added Zafar.

Sales increased on a monthly basis as well as units sold stood at 11,819 in May against 7,144 units sold in April.

Suzuki leads the way

Market leader Pak Suzuki led the pack by selling 65,300 cars and light commercial vehicles, up 40 per cent, compared to 46,618 units last year.

Sales for Suzuki were up two per cent to 6,656 units in May compared to 6,516 in April.

Parts of Suzuki are cheaper compared to competitors in the 1,000cc and below range cars which gives the company an edge in this segment of the market, said Abdul Azim, automobile analyst at Invest Capital.

Indus Motor sales up 49%

Indus Motor cars and jeeps sales rose 49 per cent, contributed largely by the sale of Toyota Corolla, according to Topline Securities.

Indus Motor sold 45,030 units in May compared with 30,257 units in April.

The new-shaped Corolla contributed 86 per cent to the company’s total sales, said Topline Securities analyst Furqan Punjani.

Toyota Corolla has great brand loyalty and corporate companies usually buy them in bulk, said JS Global Capital’s analyst Zafar.

Indus Motor cars and jeeps include Toyota Corolla, Toyota Hilux and Daihatsu Coure.

Honda witnessed an increase of six per cent while sales of Dewan Motors declined 41 per cent.

Published in the Express Tribune, June10th, 2010.