KARACHI:
Car sales jumped 62 per cent in July on a yearly basis with market leader Suzuki leading the way.
Sales stood at a two-year high of 17,518 units in the first month of the new financial year against 10,814 units sold in the same period last year, according to data released by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association on Thursday.
Pak Suzuki Motor Company led the race with sales jumping in all models while Honda and Indus Motors witnessed a slowdown. The latest addition to the Suzuki family Swift sprinted 285 per cent to 751 units while Mehran surged 179 per cent to 3,650 units. Even the out of favour Liana posted its best month in more than a year by selling 100 units.
Toyota Corolla, the highest selling car in fiscal 2011, sales dropped 16 per cent but still at a mammoth 3,681 units. Toyota Corolla stayed as the market leader but only by a small margin as they sold only 31 more units than second-highest selling car Suzuki Mehran.
Sales double on a monthly basis
Industry sales posted a huge rise of 136% mainly because of the lacklustre sales recorded in June because of the expected decline in car prices owing to one per cent downward adjustment in general sales tax coupled with removal of special excise and federal excise duty, said Summit Research analyst Sarfraz Abbasi.
Suzuki sales jumped more than three times followed by Indus Motor and Honda increasing by 18% and 23%, respectively.
However, all three automobile makers jacked up prices this week to keep their profit margins intact.
The journey ahead
“July sales are not an actual depiction of the sector’s fundamental and they are expected to ease going forward,” said Topline Securities analyst Furqan Punjani.
Furthermore, absence of aggressive consumer financing due to higher mark-up rates and nominal growth in the agricultural economy, a large market for the industry, sales will only show an improvement of 5 to 10 per cent in the financial year 2012.
However, orders after introduction of newer models will continue to support the sales volumes.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2011.
COMMENTS (7)
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People are richer than the government.
So why do people cry about inflation?
it only means that people have managed to save their income tax payment. money saved (by people) is money earned. let the country go to hell (read - IMF is no more paying any money since country has not lived upto the promises of increasing incometax to GDP ratio, which is the lowest in 27 years this year)
@Khalid Ahmed: yeah, i personelly think that honda city is far better than corolla both in terms of price and fuel consumption but still people are mad about toyota cars,,,,,dont know why?
What's with the Pakistanis' obsession of Toyota Corolla?
@Meekal Ahmed
Sir, I believe this is because of exporters whose income has increased following the tremendous growth of exports in the recent months.
Where is this money coming from? Remittances?