The auto industry has reported its worst first-quarter sales since 2013. According to stats issued by PAMA, 58,351 units sold in the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year FY19 as compared with 60,469 car units for the same period the previous year, which marks the 4% decline in units.
However, car sales increased by 3% in September 2018 as compared with the previous year. Sales stood at 19,345 units in the previous month compared to 18,798 units in September 2017.
The analysts expect a significant decline in demand in the auto sector due to a crippling macroeconomic environment, multiple times price increase since Dec 2017, and the impact of legislation which now requires car purchasers to be tax filers.
Automobile prices are expected to rise further due to sharp PKR depreciation against US dollar which will decrease the volume of the sector. Auto finance loans have become expensive due to the rising interest rates.
Trucks and Busses
Overall, trucks and buses sales saw a decline of 26% on a year on year basis in September 2018 as the sales volume declined to 589 units as compared 793 units sold in Sep 2017.
Isuzu Trucks are leading the race in both the production and sales rate. The company produced 1050 units of Trucks during July, August and September of 2017 and sold 881 units. While in 2018, the company produced 966 units and sold 801 units during the month of July, August, and September of 2018.
The cumulative units produced during these three months were 972. However, if we look at the sale rate during these three months then Hino Truck sold 252, 345, and 342 in the months of July, August and September respectively of the year 2017. The total number of units sold during three months was 939. However, the total number of units produced during July, August and September of 2018 are712 and units sold during these three months are 652.
Master Trucks produced a total of 429 units during July, August, and September of 2017 and sold 392 units. While during the months of July, August and September of 2018, the company produced a cumulative of 371 trucks and sold 285 units.
If we look at overall statistics of Truck production and sale rate then in the month of July, August and September of 2017, 2452 units were produced and sold 2230 units. While in 2018, 2049 units were produced during July, August, and September and sold 1738 units.
Cars
During September 2018, Honda (HCAR) saw a significant increase in volumes as unit sales increased by 32% year on year. Similarly, unit sales increased by 14% month on month while the first quarter sales in FY19 are up by 7% YoY.
Likewise, Civic and City increased by 47% YoY while BR-V sales continued to observe a decline by 35% year of year.
Similarly, Pak Suzuki continued to report a decline in volumes, with September sales down by 5%.
Variant Wise, Wagon-R and Swift led the growth chart up by 61% and 41% respectively. However, unit sales were declined by 37% and 23% drop in Mehran and Bolan, respectively.
Indus Motors (INDU) sales remained flat year on year, with the company recording a 2% bump on a month-on-month basis. During Sep 2018, sales were led by Corolla, up by 8% YoY.
Two Wheelers
163,680 units of motorcycles and three-wheelers were sold during the month, which was 19% higher than the sales made during the previous month and around 15% higher than that made during the corresponding period.
Variant-wise Atlas Honda Bikes saw an 18% increase with 96,008 units sold during September 18 as compared to September 2017. Pak Suzuki (Bikes) saw an 11% increase with 1922 units sold as compared to 1736 units sold in the previous year.
Tractors
Tractors, on the other hand, reported a sale of 5,818 units in September 2018, dropped by 2% year on year basis as compared to 5953 units.