KARACHI: The overall sales of locally assembled cars, light commercial vehicles, vans and jeeps grew by nine per cent year-on-year to 21,344 units during the first month of this fiscal year.

The government has banned sales of cars to non-filers from July, but its impact will be more visible in the next two to three months as local assemblers are still clearing previously booked orders.

Ongoing growth in sales is attributable to strong backlog of orders during last few months which were supported by macroeconomic landscape — cheap financing and economic expansion — conducive to growth, said analyst Syed Danial Adil of Topline Securities.

With further interest rate hike and rupee devaluation on the cards along with the ban on non-filers to register new cars, this growth momentum may lose steam in coming months, he added.

Indus Motors Company (IMC) recorded the highest growth of 18pc YoY amongst its peers, with unit sales clocking in at 5,468 units. Hilux sales soared by 44pc YoY to 682 units followed by 18pc rise in Corolla sales to 4,566 units while Fortuner sales plunged by 19pc YoY to 220 units.

Honda Atlas Cars Limited (HACL) witnessed 10pc growth YoY, as sales of Civic and City variants surged by 21pc YoY to 4,609 units. However, BR-V sales fell significantly by 46pc YoY to just 372 units.

Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) recorded only four per cent growth YoY due to decline in sales of Ravi, Bolan and Cultus by 34pc to 1,195 units, 19pc to 1,346 units and 12pc to 1,661 units respectively.

However, sales of Wagon-R, Mehran and Swift swelled by 43pc to 2,772, 20pc to 3,437 units and 68pc to 484 units respectively.

In heavy vehicles, truck sales, which showed positive growth during FY18, fell to 584 units in July 2018 as against 702 units in July 2017.

Bus segment, which saw decline in sales during FY18, improved during the outgoing with total sales reaching 110 units in July 2018 versus 90 units in July 2017.

Tractor sales (Fiat, Massey Ferguson and Orient IMT) went down to 3,872 units last month from 4,619 units in July 2017.

Sales of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association members (two and three wheelers) slightly fell to 150,664 units from 154,600 units in July 2017.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2018