KARACHI: Barring buses, two- and three-wheelers, the auto sector turned in a robust performance as car sales jumped by 61.5 per cent in the first seven months of this fiscal year followed by 80pc increase in demand for trucks, 56pc in jeeps/pickups and 16pc in farm tractors.

The car segment, however, appeared to have slowed down in January with sales plunging to 16,985 units from 24,471 units in December 2021 while the overall sales in 7MFY22 stood at 131,759 units versus 81,569 units in the same period last fiscal year.

On the pattern of issuing combined sales of Honda Civic/City by Honda Atlas Cars Ltd (HACL), another assembler Indus Motor Company (IMC) has also started issuing cumulative production and sales figures of Toyota Corolla, Yaris and Fortuner with innovative multipurpose vehicles (IMVs). This joint figure may help companies to hide the actual rise and fall of a particular vehicle. Toyota Corolla and Yaris combined sales in 7MFY22 swelled to 34,654 from 25,789 units.

Demand for buses, motorbikes shrinks

As per figures of the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA), the total sales of Honda Civic and City rose by 52pc to 21,266 from 14,021 units in 7MFY22. However, sales in January dipped to 3,646 units from 4,405 in December 2021.

Suzuki Cultus and WagonR sales went up by 75pc and 94pc to 15,688 and 28,854 units from 8,987 and 6,794 units in 7MFY22.

A jump of 58pc and 81pc were recorded in Suzuki Bolan and Alto 660cc sales to 7,197 and 36,252 units as compared to 4,568 and 20,048 units despite a drop in sales of both the vehicles in January to 956 and 3,864 units from 1,040 and 9,195 units respectively.

An increase in car sales was backed by huge previous orders when the interest rate was low followed by the long delivery timing of vehicles.

Total truck sales of PAMA members (Hino, Master, Isuzu and JAC) reached 3,492 units in 7MFY22 from 1,940 while total bus sales (Hino, Master and Isuzu) fell to 348 from 370 units.

Total sales of Toyota Fortune and Toyota’s IMVs increased to 10,215 units from 5,802 units in 7MFY22 while Hyundai Tucson sales slightly fell to 1,456 from 1,600 units.

Honda BR-V sales rose by 12pc to 2,346 units from 2,095 while Suzuki Ravi sales in 7MFY22 ended with a 72pc rise to 8,940 units from 5,190 in 7MFY21.

JAC, Isuzu D-Max and Hyundai Porter sales stood at 549, 271 and 1,004 as compared to 363, 171 and 679 units, depicting a rise of 51pc, 58pc and 48pc respectively.

Brisk agriculture indicators were well reflected with 48pc and 4pc rise in Fiat and Massey Ferguson sales to 11,175 and 20,270 units in 7MFY22 from 7,545 and 19,400 units in the same period last fiscal year.

Chinese bike demand slows

In two-wheelers, local assemblers of Japanese bikes performed much better than their Chinese counterparts. Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha sold 798,657, 21,240 and 14,038 units in 7MFY22 as compared to 732,041, 12,682 and 12,654 units in the same period last fiscal year, showing a rise of 9pc, 67pc and 11pc respectively.

Road Prince and United Auto Motorcycle suffered a sales decline of 30pc and 27pc to 63,286 and 168,546 units as compared to 89,855 and 230,370 units.

Qingqi, Sazgar, Road Prince and United Auto three-wheelers sales stood at 8,386, 8,388, 5,342 and 1,903 units as against 11,553, 9,028, 6,030 and 4,465 units in 7MFY21.

Total two/three wheelers sales stood at 1.091 million units as compared to 1.113m units in 7MFY21.

Some new players like Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Sonata, BAIC-D20, BAIC BJ40L and BAIC X25 sold 1,617, 1,412, 10, 39 and seven units in 7MFY22.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2022