KARACHI: The fiscal year 2016-17 ended on a positive note with impressive sales of trucks and tractors followed by slight sales growth in cars and buses, data released by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) showed on Tuesday.

A total of 185,781 cars were sold in the last fiscal year as compared to 181,145 units in the preceding year. The number remained depressed due to a decline in sales of Suzuki Bolan after the conclusion of Punjab Rozgar Scheme.

A sharp increase in sales of Suzuki WagonR to 17,671 from 9,709 units followed by sales growth in Honda Civic and City to 37,004 from 25,726 units averted a major fall in overall sales.

Data also revealed sales of 52,676 units of Toyota Corolla in 2016-17 as compared to 57,452 units in 2015-16. Suzuki Bolan sales plunged from 30,154 units to 19,245 while Suzuki Mehran sales inched up from 37,504 units to 37,933. Suzuki Cultus sales increased to 17,006 from 16,450 units.

In heavy vehicles, total truck sales swelled to 7,499 units from 5,550 units. Hinopak remained the market leader in trucks with sales of 3,042 units as compared to 2,458 units. Nissan trucks sales fell to 702 from 804 units while Master truck sales climbed to 1,115 from 890 units. Isuzu truck sales swelled to 2,640 from 1,398 units.

In buses, Hinopak sales declined from 821 units to 709 units in 2016-17, while Master sold 158 buses as compared to 28 units. Isuzu sales rose to 263 units from 168 units. As a result, total bus sales stood at 1,130 in 2016-2017 as against 1,017 in 2015-16.

Overall sales of tractors surged to 54,992 units from 33,986 units in 2015-16 in which the share of Massey Ferguson was 34,506 as compared to 20,479 units. Sale of Fiat tractors went up to 19,833 from 12,755 units. Orient IMT Tractor sales stood at 653 as compared to 752 units in 2015-2016.

Toyota Fortuner sales rose by over 100 per cent to 1,375 from 602 units while Suzuki Ravi sales came down to 17,944 from 29,825 units after completion of delivery under Punjab Rozgar Scheme. Toyota Hilux sales plunged slightly to 5,860 from 5,923 units.

A total of 960,105 units of Honda bikes were sold in 2016-17 as compared to 811,034 units in 2015-16 while sales of Suzuki bikes improved to 18,478 from 17,456 units. Sales of Honda outperformed peers, posting 52pc year-on-year (YoY) growth due to successful introduction of new Civic model and introduction of new SUV variant BR-V.

Indus Motors sales fell by six per cent YoY but the company focused on production of higher margin Fortuner, which has shown stellar growth of 128pc YoY. Buyers are also postponing their purchase of Toyota Corolla waiting for the widely anticipated face lift of corolla in fiscal year 2018.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2017