KARACHI, May 11: Car sales continued to show positive growth amid decline in sales of Honda cars and Daihatsu Cuore as much of the support to the overall July-April 2011-2012 sales figures came from growing sales of Suzuki and Toyota cars.

Overall car sales grew by 15 per cent to 126,081 units in July-April 2011-2012 as compared to 109,976 units in the corresponding period of last fiscal year despite rising prices of locally assembled cars.

Industry insiders said that Pak Suzuki Motor Company is currently in the process of meeting the 20,000 units (Mehran and Bolan) for Punjab’s Yellow Cab scheme by June 2012 otherwise sales of overall cars would have not been so brisk. The company, which started delivery of petrol version of Bolan and Mehran under Punjab taxi scheme from October 2011, is reported to have handed over 15,000 units so far while the Punjab government has also cleared the payment. Pak Suzuki will complete the delivery of 20,000 units by June this year.

Around 20 per cent increase in remittance in first 10 month of the current fiscal year coupled with good wheat, cotton and other crops has also been attributed to an increase in car sales.

However, rising import of used cars has yet to make any serious dent on the auto sales but local car assemblers believe that total used vehicles import is likely to exceed 43,000 units in 2011-2012, taking 25 per cent of the industry’s total volume.

Figures released by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) revealed that production of overall cars rose to 124,332 units in July-April 2011-2012 from 112,297 units in the same period of last fiscal year. A leading car assembler said that car production is likely to reach 160,000 units by end of current fiscal year.

Zeeshan Afzal of Top Line Securities also attributed growth in sales to deferred sales from June to July due to reduced tax structure announced in 2011-2012 budget.

Among the gainers included Indus Motor’s Toyota Corolla whose sales increased to 37,245 units from 34,942 units followed by sale of 11,309 units of Suzuki Cultus and 12,833 units of Suzuki Alto as compared to 9,618 and 10,496 units.

Suzuki Swift, Mehran and Bolan sales surged to 5,909, 28,849 and 17,284 units as compared to 3,281, 20,959 and 11,565 units respectively. Suzuki Liana sales also slightly improved to 402 units from 386 units.

Daihatsu Cuore sales remained in hot water after reports of discontinuation of its production from April 2012 but the company produced and sold only 27 and 313 units last month. Cuore’s total sales in July-April 2011-2012 fell to 3,499 from 4,975 units.

Sale of Honda Civic and Honda City plunged to 4,344 and 4,407 units as compared to 5,763 and 7,991 units. However the company resumed the production of Civic from March while production of City has been resumed in April due to suspension in arrival of parts and accessories from Thailand after devastating floods last year.