KARACHI: The auto sector showed mixed trend during the first two months (July and August) of this fiscal year. While cars and buses sales remained flat, gain was recorded by trucks and tractors.

Truck sales, considered as a barometer of trade and business activities, hit 418 units in July-August 2014 compared to 258 units in the same period of last fiscal year. Hino, Nissan, Master and Isuzu sales jumped to 149, 96, 82 and 91 units from 135, 36, 50 and 37, respectively.

However, bus sales slightly slowed down to 76 from 89 units. Hino sold 71 buses compared to 85 units, figures released by Pakistan Auto­motive Manufactures Asso­ciation (Pama) revealed.

In Jeeps (4x4 category), sales of Toyota Fortuner posted a healthy growth to reach 145 units in the two-month period compared to 91 thanks to removal of federal excise duty. Sigma Defender jeep sales dropped to 50 from 88 units.

In pick-ups, Suzuki Ravi sales fell to 1,702 units from 1,883, while Toyota Hilux sales picked up to 838 from 731.

In farm machinery segment, sales of Fiat, Massey Ferguson and Orient IMT Tractor stood at 2,080, 3,630 and 30 units from 1,094, 2,146 and 11 units.

As for motorcycles, Honda and DYL Yamaha sales plunged to 93,008 and 837 units from 104,018 and 5,276. However, sales of Suzuki bikes remained unchanged at 3,894 units. Sohrab and Hero bikes sales also fell to 715 and 2,005 units from 953 and 2,615 units.

Sazgar three-wheeler sales increased to 2,001 from 1,624, while Qingqi three-wheeler sales slightly went down to 3,698 from 3,700.

Total car sales declined to 16,466 units from 18,880. Suzuki Swift sales plunged to 617 compared to 907, while Cultus sales slightly dropped to 2,064 from 2,243. Mehran and Bolan sales also came down to 3,805 and 1,922 from 4,559 and 2,074.

Pak Suzuki was expecting good earnings with the launch of Punjab Taxi Scheme from next month, but the floods and political turmoil have changed the prospects.

Sherman Securities in its report on Sept 12 claimed that the delivery of taxis under “Apna Rozgar Scheme” of the Punjab government will now start from December this year instead of October.

Moreover, the management has revealed that the delay is primarily due to devastation caused by floods.

Pak Suzuki signed an agreement with the Bank of Punjab for the sale of 50,000 units of Ravi and Bolan in one year under the Punjab Taxi scheme announced in this year’s budget.

Sales of Honda Civic and City were 1,218 and 1,921 units compared to 1,755 and 2,334 units. A total of 4,188 Toyota Corollas were sold compared to 4,995 a year earlier.

Published in Dawn, September 14th , 2014