The production and sale of automobile industry products including passenger cars, buses, trucks, farm tractors, motor cycles and three wheelers of famous makers and brands, continued to be robust during first two months of the new financial year 2017-18 as not many products remained on the shelf for sale.
According to the monthly production/sale data, released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) for the month of July and August 2017, Honda (Civic and City 1300 cc and above) produced 7,767 cars and sold 7,766 cars, 2,471 more cars than the corresponding period of last year.
Toyota Corolla produced 8,657 and sold 8,462 cars against the sale of 8,250 of July-August 2016. In this category, Suzuki Swift produced 767 and sold 722 cars.
In the category of 1000 cc cars, Suzuki Cultus manufactured 3,765 pieces and sold 3,670 with an increase of 1,480 over sale of July-August 2016. Suzuki WagonR rolled out 4,927 wagons from its assembly line and sold as many as 4,137 units with an increase of 1,785 pieces over corresponding period of last year.
In the manufacturing of 800 cc and below 1000 cc cars, Suzuki Mehran rolled out 7,983 cars and sold 6,827 against the July-August 2016 sale of 5,676 pieces. Suzuki Bolan produced 3,691 cars and sold 3,224 cars during past two months.
The Truck Manufacturers Hino, Master and Isuzu produced 1,537 and sold 1,478 trucks. These heavy-vehicle manufacturers rolled out 200 buses and sold 175 locally assembled buses. Vans and Jeeps manufacturers produced 1948 pieces and sold 1836 vans/jeeps while 4,724 pickups were sold against the production of 4,826 pick-ups.
Industry sources told Business Recorder that the farm tractor manufacturers have to run their plants in two shifts to meet the increasing domestic demand after about 11 percent reduction in the general sale tax on tractors. The manufacturers of Fiat tractors, Al-Ghazi Tractors Ltd sold 3,487 tractors against the rolling out of 3,867 tractors. Millat Tractors Ltd sold as many as 6,306 tractors against the production of 6,326 tractors.
It is worth mentioning that there has been more than 100 percent surge in the production and sale of farm tractors (from 4,446 to 9,757) as compared to July-August 2016. The production and sale of motorbikes and three wheelers continue to grow as nearly 90,000 more motor cycles were sold during the months of July and August 2017 as compared to corresponding period of 2016.
The producers of motorcycles and three wheelers supplied 324,824 pieces to the market which were all sold like a hot cake. Honda continued to capture lion's share of the market which sold 187,349 motor cycles as compared to 136,476 sale of July-August 2016.