KARACHI: Sales of locally assembled cars, including light commercial vehicles (LCVs), vans and jeeps, surged by 41 per cent in July to 19,577 units.

Pak Suzuki Motor Company led the pack, with 37pc increase in total sales in July due to strong sales of WagonR, up 77pc, year-on-year. New Cultus model sales swelled by 66pc while Ravi sales by 41pc.

Sales of Honda Atlas outperformed peers, posting 113pc growth to 4,511 units due to successful introduction of new Civic model and new SUV variant BR-V.

Indus Motor Company sold 4,618 units in the outgoing month, showing 11pc jump.

The company’s focus remained on production of higher margin Fortuner which has shown stellar growth of 543pc. Buyers postponed their purchase of Toyota Corolla, waiting for the face-lift model, which had arrived in August.

Rai Omar Basharat of Topline Securities attributed this apparently large jump to low-base effect due to lower number of working days last year.

Tractor sales continued to exhibit upward trajectory with sales growing by 125pc in July. He said lower GST, improving crop yield due to Punjab government’s Kissan Package and continuation of fertiliser subsidy to improve farmer’s purchasing power made a good impact on overall tractor sales. The Sindh government in 2017-18 budget has set aside Rs2bn as subsidy for farmers on tractor purchase.

Truck and bus sales of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association members in July posted 13pc growth to 792 units.

The robust sales would continue, fuelled by CPEC-led growth, higher road connectivity, lower financing rate and change and enforcement of axle load limit per truck on highways by the National Highway Authority. Two- and three-wheeler combined sales grew by 42pc to 152,086 units in July.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2017