KARACHI: The entire auto sector continued to remain under pressure with sales declining in the range of 9.7-46.8 per cent across segments during the first eight months of this fiscal year.

Car sales plunged by 43.4pc to 79,537 units during 8MFY20 despite slight improvement to 10,345 in February, from 10,095 compared to January.

Suzuki WagonR maintained its lead in the worst sales category, depicting 73pc fall in 8MFY20 to 5,812 units while Suzuki Bolan came in second position in registering 64pc decline to 4,073, followed by 63pc of Honda Civic and City to 10,665 during July-February.

Similarly, Suzuki Swift and Toyota Corolla sales dipped by 55pc and 51pc to 1,466 units and 18,902 respectively while those of Suzuki Cultus were down 33pc to 9,845 in the eight-month period.

The absence of Suzuki Mehran 800cc from the data of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (Pama) was somehow covered up by Alto 660cc with sales of 27,072 units in 8MFY20, thus supporting Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) amid declining volumes in hot selling WagonR, Bolan and Cultus.

Frequent price shocks by car assemblers on falling rupee, imposition of federal excise duty (FED) by 2.5-7.5pc on different engine power, additional customs duty (ACD) on imports of parts and accessories and high interest rate took away buyers from the markets.

Heavy vehicle assemblers (Hino, Master, Isuzu and JAC) also faced the brunt of economic slowdown, thus bringing down truck sales by 43.2pc to 2,435 units in first eight months while bus sales stood lower by 24.7pc to 488.

Slackness in heavy vehicles also caused a drop in diesel sales by 14pc to 4.211 million tonnes in July-February FY20.

In LCVs, jeeps and vans, Toyota Fortuner and Honda BR-V sales plummeted by 50pc and 45pc to 913 and 1,832 units while Suzuki Ravi, Toyota Hilux and JAC sales stood at 5,660, 2,892 and 325 units as compared to 12,300, 4,318 and 452 units in 8MFY19.

Falling tractor volumes gave a dismal picture of agriculture sector as sales of Fiat and Massey Ferguson came down by 30pc and 39pc to 7,869 and 12,557 units respectively during July-February FY20.

However, the same figures for Fiat and Massey Ferguson grew to 1,106 and 2,020 units in February from 882 and 1,309 in January.

In two/three wheelers, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha sales plunged by 5pc, 7pc and 1pc to 700,194, 14,540 and 16,742 units in 8MFY20. Those of Ravi, Road Prince and United Motorcycle also shrank by 42pc, 26pc and 12pc to 10,522, 83,400 and 225,561 units, respectively.

Qingqi, Sazgar and Road Prince and United three-wheelers sales stood at 9,567, 8,853, 6,694 and 4,370, from 15,566, 11,033, 7,473 and 8,166, respectively.

Amid thin volumes of two/three-wheelers and cars, petrol sales in the country did not show any downward trend, staying same at 5m tonnes in July-February FY20. Prolonged closure of CNG station from December 2019 to January had forced many cars and rickshaws users to switch to petrol.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2020