January 17, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 16, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 16: Except for a persistent decline in bus sales, the entire auto sector remained buoyant, with car sales rising by 24.58 per cent, tractor 15 per cent, motorcycle 23.5 per cent, truck 40 per cent and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) by 40 per cent during July-December 2005 compared to the same period of 2004.

Total bus sales during the July-December 2005 period stood at 454 units as against 684 units in the same period a year ago. Bus sales have been on the decline since July 2005 following the suspension of the Urban Transport Scheme (UTS) and lack of interest among investors owing to rising cost of diesel.

The Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA), which released the figures on Monday, appears concerned over depressed sales of buses. The association thinks that the federal and provincial governments need to enforce the regulations and provide incentives to the operators to replace ageing and dangerously unfit buses with new ones. It appeals to the government to revive the UTS which has practically fallen into disuse.

Out of total sales of 454 units, the share of Hinopak is 309 units, while Nissan has sold 20 units, followed by 98 units by Isuzu, 23 units by Dong Feng and four units by Master. A total of 1,605 units of buses were sold in July-June 2004-05.

Tractor sales of two leading producers — Fiat and Massey Ferguson — touched 23,820 units in the first six months of the current fiscal year as compared to 20,665 units in the same period last fiscal year, the PAMA figures reveal. “Higher tractor sales reflect the brisk performance of the agriculture sector,” an analyst said.

Local car sales remained overheated during the last six months despite rising imports of new and used cars after the budget and trade policy. Consumers continued to show their passion for locally-assembled cars, thus pushing up the sales to 71,027 units from 57,010 units in July-December 2004.

Leasing and banks’ auto financing continued to play a leading role in making buyers’ impatient to have cars at any cost. However, the federal and provincial governments look unaware of the massive traffic jams on roads owing to advent of cars through leasing companies. On an average, 12,000 locally-assembled cars add every month to the dilapidated road networks of the country, besides imports of used cars are on the rise.

Everybody who has some excess liquidity is now buying a car through leasing companies and banks. Car makers are continuously gearing up production capacities to bridge the demand and supply gap, besides controlling the late delivery and premium on locally-assembled cars.

Honda Civic production increased to 2,735 units in December 2005 from 1,304 units in July 2005, while City production declined to 424 units in November 2005 and to 312 units in December 2005 compared to 1,572 units in July 2005. The reason for decline in City production was the introduction of a new 1500cc model with Euro 3 engine.

Toyota Corolla production increased to 2,891 units in December 2005 from 2,181 units in July 2005, while Suzuki Alto sales in December 2005 stood at 1,645 units from 857 units in July 2005. Suzuki Cultus production reached 1,927 units in December 2005 as compared to 1,341 units in July 2005. Mehran production rose to 3,673 units in December 2005 from 2,460 units in July 2005. There is no production of Nissan Sunny, Kia Classic, Kia Spectra and Kia Sportage from July to December 2005.

Truck sales touched 1,916 units in July-December 2005 from 1,374 units in the same period of 2004, thus showing a frequent interest of investors in purchasing trucks because of rising activities of cargo movement in the country.

Sales of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) rose to 14,549 units in the last six months from 10,418 units in the corresponding period of 2004 due to rising production by Master and Sigma (Defender) and capacity expansion of other producers like Shehzore, Hilux, Bolan, Ravi, etc. However, like second half of 2004, Dong Feng production again faced the same fate in July-December 2005 and did not achieve any sizable number of productions. Sindh Engineering Limited had switched over to new product line for assembly and manufacturing of Dong Feng vehicles from Mazda vehicles.

Motorcycle sales (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Sohrab, Triwheeler, Qingqi (tri-wheeler) reached 239,443 units in July-December 2005 as compared to 193,875 units in the same period of 2004.