KARACHI: Sales of buses, trucks and other heavy vehicles generally declined in the last fiscal year 2012-13, barring farm tractors and jeeps (4x4), according to the statistics of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA).

Truck sales, dubbed as barometer of local and foreign trade, declined to 1,948 units in FY13 as compared to 2,394 units in FY12 while bus sales dropped to 510 from 609 units.

Sales of Hino, Master and Isuzu trucks plunged to 842,583 and 297 units in FY13 as compared to 1,163, 693 and 314 units, respectively, in FY12. However, Nissan truck sales slightly improved to 226 from 224 units.

Sales of leading bus maker, Hino, also dropped to 410 from 490 units, while Isuzu sales slightly rose to 96 from 90 units.

An official in a leading bus/truck assembling unit said that many factors combined to cause drop in sales of trucks, including imports of used trucks, competition among the assemblers, rising diesel prices and devaluation of the rupee against major currencies. Besides increase in price, the pre-election scenario also made investors cautious to invest in heavy vehicles, he said.

He said new and used Chinese vehicles have also arrived, while many transporters preferred purchasing used locally produced trucks instead of new trucks. Developed logistic sectors are also shying away from buying Japanese trucks and many have shifted their focus to Chinese and other brands, he added.

The official said that bus segment was not badly hit as the volume of used buses arrival is quite low. Besides, investors are still putting up heavy investment in bus segment in intercity and up-country transport system since people started preferring traveling by buses rather than by trains.

As per date provided by All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA), 95 used buses, 1,311 trucks/spraying lorries and 232 dumpers/mixer trucks were imported in FY13.

In category of jeeps (4x4), sales of Toyota Fortuner, which came into production line in the country from February 2013, stood at 812 units while Sigma Defender sales swelled to 626 in FY13 from 342 units in FY12. A total of 1,226 jeeps were also imported in FY13.

Overall sales of pickups remained flat at 15,042 units as compared to 21,472 in FY12 in which Suzuki Ravi and Toyota Hilux sales fell to 10,734 and 4,282 as compared to 17,015 and 4,413 units. Master pickup sales stood at 26 as compared to 44 units. As many as 1,820 used vans and 464 pickups were also imported in FY13.

Fiat and Massey Ferguson tractor sales increased to 18,547 and 32,046 units in FY13 from 17,740 and 32,005 units, respectively, in FY12.

Senior Executive Director Millat Tractors, Sohail Bashir Rana, told Dawn from Lahore that he was expecting more sales in the previous fiscal year but general elections fever slowed down the sales from March, making growers reluctant.

He said July-August always remain slow in terms of sales due to completion in sowing of crops, but growers would resume buying from September onwards after harvesting.

Rana expected improvement in sales in the current fiscal year and hoped better political and economic conditions as compared to the last fiscal.

He said rupee devaluation against major currencies, power rates and labour charges had pushed up input cost, which has resulted in raising tractor prices.

He said there was no tractor scheme in Punjab in FY13 but the company provided around 60 per cent of tractors to Sindh’s tractor scheme out of total 5,000 tractors.

Among the three leading bike assemblers, sales of Honda jumped to 635,269 bikes from 587,866, while sales of DYL Motorcycles and Suzuki fell to 57,364 and 19,512 bikes from 86,000 and 22,694 during the period.