KARACHI: Locally-assembled car sales surged 19 per cent to 180,079 units during 2015-16 compared to 151,134 units in 2014-15.

In 1,300cc and above category, sales of Toyota Corolla soared to 57,452 units as compared to 51,398 units while combined sales of Honda Civic and Honda City increased to 25,726 from 23,622 units.

Suzuki Swift sales rose to 4,080 from 3,490 units while there was no production and sales of Suzuki Liana in the outgoing fiscal year as compared to zero production and 23 units sale in 2014-2015. In 1,000cc category, Suzuki Cultus and Wagon R sales rose to 16,093 and 9,482 units as compared to 13,837 and 5,246 units in 2014-2015.

In 800cc and below, Suzuki Mehran and Suzuki Bolan sales peaked to 37,223 and 30,016 as compared to 29,886 and 23,582 units in 2014-2015.

Heavy vehicle segment also posted positive growth with sale of trucks rising to 5,550 units from 4,111 while total bus sales went up to 1,017 from 569 units.

Sale of Toyota Fortuner and Sigma Defender fell to 602 and 173 units in 2015-2016 as compared to 722 and 441 units in 2014-2015. Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (Pama) data shows no production of Sigma Defender from January 2016 to June 2016.

The sale of Suzuki Ravi, which was also a main beneficiary of Punjab Taxi Scheme, reached 29,780 units from 22,815 units, while a total of 5,923 units of Toyota Hilux were sold as compared to 4,823 units.

Zeeshan Afzal of Insight Securities attributed increase in car sales to Punjab Government’s Apna Rozgar Scheme of 50,000 units, full year impact of higher Corolla sales in addition to growing income levels and easy car financing.

However, poor farmers economic condition and government’s failure to implement the announced subsidy schemes hit tractors sales which went down by 26 per cent YoY to 34,618 tractors, due to 26pc lower Milltat Tractors sales to 21,111 units and 25pc lower sales by Al Ghazi to 12,755 units.

He said rising economic activity and easing financing have also revived Heavy Commercial Vehicles. Though low interest rates, growing economic activity and rising consumer demand/purchasing power would keep providing support, he expected about 9pc lower car sales next year due to absence of any subsidy on cars. Margins scenario has also become tough due to recent Japanese yen appreciation and feared rupee depreciation.

He said higher tractor sales are expected due to government’s focus towards agriculture and reviving tractor exports by Millat Tractors.

Hamza Raza of Top Line Securities said besides Punjab’s Taxi Scheme for Suzuki Bolan and Suzuki Ravi -- improving law and order situation, macroeconomic growth and monetary easing leading to record low interest rates contributed towards growth in car segment.

Sales of Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) went up by 28pc YoY in fiscal year 2016 to 126,674 units due to taxi scheme. The said scheme culminated earlier this year and it is unlikely to be introduced in FY17. Therefore, sales of PSMC are expected to decline next year, he added.

He said Indus Motors sold 63,977 units in fiscal year 2016, up 12pc YoY. Sales surpassed its last year’s record and the company was able to achieve this by de-bottlenecking of its paint shop to meet the increased demand.

Honda Cars (HCAR) sold 25,726 units in fiscal year 2016 registering 9pc YoY growth. Sales remained in check as buyers delayed purchases in anticipation of company’s new model.

Hamza said Honda City is the main contributor to Honda Atlas Cars sales growth and volumes of current model of Honda Civic are expected to dry out now. Buyers are likely to prefer the new model of Civic (10th generation).

Pre-booking for the same has already begun and the company is expected to launch the model very soon, as per our channel checks. Channel checks also reveal that bulk of the pre-booking has been done for 1.5 litre turbocharged variant, which is priced at Rs2.8m.

He said farmers had resumed regular purchases due to uncertainty in subsidy scheme. This year’s budget is full of incentives to the agriculture sector, including reduction in urea prices and financing rates. This should help improve liquidity with farmers resulting in better off-take of tractors, he added.

Sale of bikes showed mixed performance. A total of 811,034 units of Honda bikes were sold as compared to 653,193 units while sale of DYL motorcycles went up to 8,183 units from 7,172. However, sale of Suzuki bikes declined to 17,456 from 22,703 units.

Sohrab bike sale plunged sharply to 1,991 units from 5,776, while Hero and Ravi bike sales dropped to 2,958 and 20,837 units from 8,593 and 23,794 units.

A newcomer Yamaha managed to sell 16,109 units in 2015-2016. Pakistan’s number 2 bike maker United sold 262,773 units as compared to 230,999 units. Road Prince bike makers sold 167,241 units as compared to 134,562 in 2014-2015.

Saazgar three-wheeler sales increased to 17,405 units from 13,991. Sale of United auto three wheeler soared to 1,576 from 138 units.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2016