November 15, 2006	Wednesday	Shawwal 22, 1427

KARACHI, Nov 14: The sales of motorcycles and tractors declined by 16 and 0.25 per cent, but the sales of trucks, bus and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) surged by 20, 4.1 and 9 per cent during July-October 2006 as compared to same period of last year.

Sales of bike (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Sohrab, Hero and Triwheeler) fell by 18 per cent in July-September 2006 as compared to previous year.

According to figures of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) a total of 146,027 bikes were sold in July-October 2006 as compared to 173,822 units in the same period of last year.

Haji Younus Pirani, chief executive of N.J. Autos - makers of Super Power bike and rickshaws - said that bike sales depended on better harvesting of major crops when farmers got the reward of their hard-work. Usually, the bike sales remain depressed during July-September period every year, he added.

“Sales will pick up from November to February as sugarcane crushing has already been started by some millers and rest will follow the suit. Besides, cotton and rice crop are also there. Sales will again rise when new wheat season begins in April,” he added.

He said growers and farmers were the big buyers of bikes when they got return from the four major crops. Last year that total bike sales were over 700,000 units and in this fiscal it would cross 800,000 units, he added.

The market share of Chinese bike, which was just 15 per cent two years back, has now reached to 55 per cent, Pirani said, adding that was because of improved quality.

A total of 14,978 tractors (Fiat and Massey Ferguson) were sold in July-October 2006 as compared to 15,016 units in the same period of 2005. Chief Executive Millat Tractors Limited Sohail Bashir Rana told Dawn from Lahore that the minor decline in sales was not worrisome sign for the industry as in July-August demand remained slow while in October there were Ramazan and Eid holidays.

He said sales were picking from November and it would reach at peak in January as sugarcane crushing had started followed by wheat sowing and rice harvesting, besides cotton season was also near.

Rana said that so far the sales of locally-assembled tractors had been satisfactory despite duty-free arrival of imported tractors. “We are surviving on our prices on which the imported tractors cannot compete,” he said, adding that farmers prefer those tractors whose dealership and after sales service exist in rural areas and unluckily dealers of imported tractors fail to offer this kind of service.

“We do not feel any significant threat from the imported tractors like Belarus and some Chinese makes,” he said, adding that the government policy of allowing duty-free import of tractors and putting checks on the local industry under new Tariff Based System (TBS) was not fair. “Despite that the local industry still holds over 90 per cent market share,” he maintained.Out of total sales of tractors about 20-25 per cent units are sold through loaning facility offered by Zari Taraqqiati Bank while 45 per cent is sold on cash basis and 15-20 per cent through financing facility of commercial banks.

Truck sales (Hino, Nissan, Master and Isuzu) rose to 1,424 units in July-October 2006 from 1,185 units while sales of buses went up by 4.1 per cent to 351 units from 337 units.

In trucks, sales of the local industry players had been on the decline from August to October after remaining on peak level in July this year. Rains, political turmoil in Balochistan, Ramazan and Eid holidays can be attributed to slow sales. In buses, same trend had been witnessed. Another factor in falling bus sales was very thin commercial sales.

“I cannot term the increase in bus and truck sales as satisfactory or significant as many domestic factors relating to government policies have been creating problems like regularisation of imported trucks and low commercial sales of buses,” director marketing and sales, Hinopak Motors Limited Mohammad Irfan Shaikh said.

Sales of LCVs (Suzuki Bolan, Potohar, Ravi, Hyundai Shehzore, Master, Sigma Defender, Toyota Hilux and Dong Feng) increased to 10,186 units from 9,354 units.