KARACHI, April 11: Sales of locally assembled cars reportedly surged by 15.25 per cent to 112,721 units in July-March 2011-2012 from 97,804 units in the same period of last fiscal year.

Uncertain economic and political conditions, law and order, high car fuel prices (petrol, diesel and CNG) and rising import of used cars did not affect the sale of locally assembled cars so far.

Rising home remittances, yellow cab orders by the Punjab government for Suzuki Mehran and Alto till June this year, increase in rural buying owing to high support price of wheat and its expected bumper crop coupled with good cotton, sugarcane and rice crops kept car demand strong from growers of cash crops.

Chief Executive of Topline Securities Mohammad Sohail said that despite economic slowdown and declining investment in the country, the rising trend in car sales shows that informal sector is doing well in Pakistan. He anticipated a growth of 15-20 per cent in car sales in coming months.

Chairman All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA) H.M. Shahzad said that total import of used vehicles (from 660cc small cars to high engine capacity sport utility vehicles) swelled to over 35,000 units in July-March 2011-2012 while in fiscal year of 2010-2012, total imports were only 18,000-19,000 units.

He said that production of two small cars – Daihatsu Cuore and Suzuki Alto are planned to be permanently closed down in the country from April and May 2012 period but surprisingly the assemblers of these vehicles continued to raise their prices so that they could introduce new vehicles next year at very high price.

He said that so far the sale of local assembled cars had been going strong despite car makers’ hue and cry of bad impact of used car arrivals on their sales.

Suzuki remains a leader

All Suzuki vehicles remained in high demand during the above mentioned period. For example, sale of Suzuki Cultus rose to 10,598 units from 8,364 units. This was followed by a hike in the sales of Mehran and Bolan to 25,583 and 15,148 units in the last nine months of the current fiscal year as compared to 19,084 and 10,264 units respectively in the same period of last financial year.

Suzuki Swift and Alto sales also improved to 5,201 and 11,818 units as compared to 2,774 and 9,395 units in July-March 2011-2012. Suzuki Liana sales slightly rose to 374 units as compared to 336 units.

Toyota Corolla sales surged to 32,814 units from 30,820 units. The production of Honda Civic remained suspended from December 2011 to February 2012 due to parts supply problems from flood hit Thailand last year.