KARACHI, April 19: The boom period for the entire auto sector continued with sales of bikes, trucks/buses, tractors and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) rising by 30, 65, 18 and 58 per cent, respectively, in July-March 2002-03 as compared to the same period of last fiscal.
Positive economic indicators, availability of lease and consumer financing by banks and leasing companies, change in models and cosmetic changes and better crops of wheat, cotton and other agriculture goods can be attributed to robust performance of the auto sector.
Japanese bike assemblers — Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha — despite entry of cheaper Chinese bikes, managed to maintain their market share as their overall sales rose by 30 per cent to 112,848 units in the last nine months of current fiscal as compared to 86,544 units in the corresponding period of 2001-02.
The actual growth in sales of overall motorcycles (both Japanese and Chinese assembled bikes) could not be known owing to non- availability of production figures of many Chinese bikes.
However, market sources said that people were gradually switching over to these bikes because of being cheaper by Rs20,000-30,000 in 70cc as compared to Japanese assembled bikes. Only the maker of Chinese bike, Sohrab, has registered itself with the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA), which is usually dominated by the Japanese assemblers.
Production of PCICS Sohrab and its tri-wheeler during July-March was 5,266 units, while its sales figures were not available.
Sales of tractors (Al-Ghazi Fiat and Millat MF) went up by 18 per cent to 17,484 units from 14,793 units in July-March 2001- 02 owing to increased credit availability to farmers. Tractor makers are looking for their industry’s revival this year as they feel that the year 2003 looks favourable for tractor sales since the commercial banks have also come forward to allocate funds for tractor loans.
The tractor market had shrunk in the last three years due to reduced loaning by the banks.
Sales of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) jumped by 58 per cent during July-March 2002-03 to 8,899 units from 5,636 units in the same period of 2001-02. Dewan’s Shehzore, Indus Hilux and Suzuki Bolan continued to remain in high demand as compared to Suzuki Jeep and Ravi.
Sales of trucks and buses (Hinopak, Ghandhara Nissan and Sindh Engineering Mazda) surged by 65 per cent to 2,353 units from 1,427 units in July-March 2001-02 as a result of increase in transportation of goods between cities and also to Afghanistan coupled with introduction of new buses by transporters on inter- city routes.
However, truck makers are now facing threat of erosion in their market share since many traders/importers have set up workshops in the Karachi Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) and are importing second hand vehicles (mainly cargo trucks) in disassembled form in containers.
An official of the leading assembler said the vehicle assembly through workshops in the KEPZ was done by unskilled workers and the vehicles, being rolled out from the KEPZ, were with dump mechanism installed/fitted on them, which was later removed once the vehicle entered into the tariff area.
He said the trucks, being imported as dump trucks, were mainly used as haulage trucks/ trailers and passenger buses.
The local truck assembling industry has approached the industries ministry to prevent the misuse of dumpers imported for off-highway use.
An assembler said the import of dump trucks at concessional rates was unjustified as the local industry had ample capacity to produce dump trucks. Currently, the import of old used vehicles is allowed under the gift scheme, personal baggage and transfer of residence scheme.
The local industry has urged the industries ministry to impose ban on the import of old/used dump trucks either in completely built up unit (CBU) form or in knockdown form. The rate of duty on new dump trucks should be increased to 60 per cent from 40 per cent to stop misuse of this facility. The rate of duty on the CBU buses should also be raised to 60 per cent, demanded the industry.
