Pakistan auto sales are down by 13 percent on year-on-year basis in Feb 2019, as against 4.5 percent decrease in January 2019. The sales are down 13 percent on month-on-month basis which can be attributed to lower number of working days in February compared to January, analyst said.
Some measures in economic reforms package are expected to support declining volumes, however, volumes will still see a downward trend in months to come, due to slow down in economy as well as significant jump in prices in last 15 months, an analyst at Topline Securities said.
Total sales during the first eight months of FY19 have come in at 163,000 units, down by 4.5 percent on year-on-year basis. Indus Motors (INDU) reported YoY growth yet again (up 8 percent YoY in February 2019) as the strong (albeit thinning) order book continues to support sales. Fortuner sales rose 80 percent YoY, first YoY increase in 8 months, while Corolla continued its growth trend with sales up 23 percent YoY. On the other hand Hilux sales fell 72 percent YoY, highest YoY decline in 19 months.
Pak Suzuki (PSMC) continued to report YoY decline in sales, down by 17 percent YoY in February 2019. Sales decline was led by Mehran, Bolan, Swift, Cultus and Ravi variants down by 33 percent YoY, 18 percent YoY, 28 percent YoY, 14 percent YoY and 14 percent YoY, respectively. Wagon-R was the only PSMC variant to record growth YoY (up 16 percent YoY).
Honda cars (HCAR) sales fell 27 percent YoY, worst YoY decline since April 2012. This coincides with worst YoY decline in sales of city and civic variants, which fell by 24 percent YoY. In addition to the economic factors, decline in City and Civic variants can also be attributed to the expected launch of Civic 1.5 Turbo (substitute for Civic 1.8) in coming months. Simultaneously BR-V sales fell 45 percent YoY. To, note, BR-V sales have fallen YoY for the 10 consecutive month as the variant introduced in April 2017 loses its charm with the consumers.