KARACHI: Car sales recorded a growth of 21.93 per cent to 105,344 units in the first nine months (July-March) of 2014-15 as compared to 86,395 units in the same period last year.

In March 2015, sales went up to 16,806 units as compared to 14,041 units in February, Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) data revealed on Friday.

New Toyota Corolla provided much impetus to the overall car sales, with 36,238 units sold in July-March 2014-15 as compared to 23,026 units in the same period last year. Its sales in March alone stood at 5,196 units as compared to 4,449 units in February.

Honda Civic struggled with sales of 5,656 units during the period under review as compared to 7,206 units in the corresponding period of last year. However, Honda Atlas Cars got enough support from the sales of Honda City which improved to 10,749 units as compared to 9,586 units in July-March 2013-14.

Suzuki Swift sales remained laggard with 2,589 units as compared to 3,705 units.

In 1,000cc category, Suzuki Cultus sales fell to 10,502 units from 11,075 units, while the sales of Wagon R stood at 3,337 units in July-March 2014-15.

In 800cc segment, Suzuki Mehran sales inched up to 22,269 units from 21,312 units, while Suzuki Bolan sales went up to 13,932 units from 10,263 units.

Deputy Head of Research at Topline Securities, Muhammad Tahir Saeed, anticipated car sales to grow by 24 per cent in FY15 and by 17pc in FY16, particularly due to Punjab

Taxi scheme, diminishing inventory of used cars, improving farmer economics, decline in oil prices leading to higher disposable income and reviving car financing.

He said that the earnings of car assemblers may grow by 47pc in 2015, owing to the expectations of strong volumetric growth, depreciation of Japanese yen by 16pc year-on-year against the US dollar and strong pricing power of local assemblers.

Pak Suzuki started the delivery of 50,000 yellow cabs to the Punjab government from February 2015 and around 40,000 units would be distributed this year and remaining in 2016, Tahir said.

He said the falling interest rate, down by 200 basis points since October 2014, was gradually increasing the car financing, which currently stand at around 25pc compared to 5pc in 2008-12.

“It may not reach the levels that we have seen 10 years back because of stringent rules and regulations of banks. But we expect car financing can reach 40-50pc of cars sold,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2015

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