KARACHI: Japanese and Chinese bike assemblers have shocked their buyers with surprise price hikes on the eve of Eidul Azha.

Without giving any reason in their price revision letters to their authorised dealers, the Japanese assemblers have raised prices by Rs2,400-8,000 for different models.

While Chinese bike-makers have jacked up rates by Rs500-Rs2,000 attributing it to rising raw material (steel, plastic and resin) prices on the world markets coupled with rising rates of locally made parts.

The market leader Atlas Honda Ltd (AHL) has shocked buyers by raising prices by Rs2,400-5,000 on various models effective from Wednesday, the day nation will be celebrating Eidul Azha.

Honda CD-70cc price has been raised by Rs2,400 to Rs84,500 while CD-70 Dream, Pridor, CG-125 and CG125S will carry new price tags of Rs90,500, Rs117,500, Rs139,500 and Rs167,500, up by Rs3,000 respectively.

Two-wheelers to cost Rs500-Rs8,000 more

With addition of Rs5,000 each, the models of CB-125F will cost now Rs200,500 and the CB-150F and two other variants to Rs255,500 and Rs259,500, respectively.

Yamaha Motor Pakistan Ltd has raised prices by Rs7,000-8,000 effective from July 26. The new rate of Yamaha YB125Z, YB125Z DX and YBR 125 will be tagged at Rs176,000, Rs190,000 and Rs196,000.

The assembler of Unique bike had already increased price by Rs2,000 from July 10, while a number of Chinese bike assemblers have been raising the price prior and after the announcement of budget for the current fiscal year.

For example, Crown Motor Company, United Auto Industries and Road Prince Motorcycle and Rickshaws had raised prices by Rs1,000 from July 10 in 70cc-125cc bikes.

United Auto Industries had raised the scooty 100cc price on June 25 by Rs10,000. The company had increased the price by Rs500-1,000 in 70cc-125cc bikes from April 10.

Haji Motors had raised the price of Express motorcycles by Rs800 from July 5 in two models. D.S. Motors, maker of Unique bikes, pushed up the price of 70cc to 100cc bikes by Rs2,000 from July 1.

Bike assemblers have taken the lead from the car assemblers in jacking up prices more frequently in the last one and a half years.

Consumers had not witnessed any drop in price of both cars and two-wheelers when one dollar was available at Rs168.40 in August 2020 as compared to Rs152-153 in May 2021, thus bringing down the cost of imported parts and accessories.

Now the rupee has lost its strength and now one dollar is now traded at Rs161.48 in the interbank market, thus making a case of further price jump in two-wheelers, a senior trader of bikes at Akbar Road, Mohammad Sabir Sheikh said, adding that rising raw material prices like steel and plastic materials on the world markets would continue to put extra pressure on the production cost.

He said irrespective of price hike, the demand of bikes would remain brisk keeping in view deteriorating public transport system and rising petrol prices.

Mr Sabir said that the rising demand for bikes can be gauged from the impressive sales figures as Honda sold 48pc more bikes to 1.292 million units in FY21 from 873,902 units in FY20 while Suzuki sales recorded 44pc rise to 24,851 units from 17,301 units in FY20.

Yamaha sales had recovered by 3pc to 19,924 units from 19,371 units in FY20.

United Auto Motorcycle sales went up by 25pc to 368,643 units from 295,495 units followed by 30pc rise in Road Prince bike sales to 141,230 units from 108,990.

In view of brisk sales, the import bill of completely- and semi-knocked down (CKD/SKD) kits in FY21 swelled by 19pc to $75 million from $63m in FY20.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2021