KARACHI: The sales of locally assembled cars, vans, jeeps and light commercial vehicles posted a 22 per cent year-on-year increase to 192,734 units in the first nine months of 2017-18.
In March, the auto sales rose 9pc to 22,380 units.
According to Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (Pama) data the sales of cars had been going brisk despite increase in prices twice from January to March followed by rising petrol and CNG rates.
Sales of Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd (PSMCL) slowed down after eight months of double-digit growth. Sales only grew by four per cent year-on-year in March as demand for price-conscious models remained flat. However, sales picked up for high-price variants Cultus which went up 14pc and Swift up by 13pc year-on-year. The 9MFY18 sales rose by 27pc year-on-year to 107,294 units.
Sales of Honda Atlas Cars (HAC) outperformed peers, posting 41pc/19pc year-on-year/month-on-month growth. These are the highest monthly sales in history of the company at 5,344 units due to success of recently revamped City, strong demand for Civic and rebound in sales of SUV variant BRV.
The sales in 9MFY18 went up by 39pc to 39,013 units. HAC had informed its authorised dealers on April 3 about achieving production and sales targets planned in last year. During April 2017 to March 2018, the company posted highest ever total sales of 50,100 units.
Toyota Corolla sales fell to 38,244 units in 9MFY18 from 40,694 units in same period last fiscal as the company continued to face capacity constraints. Fortuner sales swelled to 2,741 units from 811 units in 9MFY17 followed by jump in Hilux sales to 5,442 units from 4,239 units.
Rai Umar Basharat at TopLine Securities said the change in import procedure, availability of auto finance at lower rates and demand from online ride hailing services boosted car demand.
Tractor sales grew by 15pc YoY in March. Al-Ghazi Tractors outperformed exhibiting 23pc YoY growth. During 9MFY18 tractor sales reached 49,034 units, up 27pc.
Truck and bus sales in March remained robust growing by 40pc year-on-year, while during 9MFY18 sales rose 18pc. He foresees this trend to continue fuelled by China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, higher road connectivity, low financing rate, robust growth in large-scale manufacturing sector and change in enforcement of axle load limit per truck on highways.
Bike sales
Atlas Honda Ltd (AHL) produced and sold record 108,718 and 108,736 bikes in March beating 100,000 and 100,011 units recorded in January.
During July-March period of 2017-18, Honda bike production and sales hit 838,100 and 838,395 units compared to 712,040 and 711,395 units in same period last year.
Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2018
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