By Ahmed Mukhtar Naqshbandi
ISLAMABAD: The passenger car sales in Pakistan has recorded a sharp decline of 65 percent in January 2023 as compared to the previous year amid low purchasing power, shortage of raw materials and price surge, suggests the data.
The sales of Hyundai jeeps and cars, sales of all other variants of cars, tractors, trucks, buses, pick-ups and two-wheelers as well as three-wheelers declined in January this year as compared to January 2022, as per the data by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA). Suzuki’s Swift, however, remained an exception.
Car sales data of first seven months of FY-2023
The sales data of the first seven months of FY-2023 also witnessed a drop of 43 percent compared to the same period in 2022. As per the PAMA data, passenger car sales slowed by 65 percent in January 2023 to 6,021 units against 16,985 units in January 2022.
In the first seven months of FY-2023, a total of 74,933 units were sold, down by 43 percent against 131,759 units sold during the same period in FY-2022.
Sales in January 2023 decreased by 56 percent when compared with 13,780 units sold in December last year. Engine capacity-wise sales data showed that during this period, sales of 1,300cc and above cars were recorded at 4,207 units, down 55.5 percent compared with 2022 sales of 9,456 units during the same period.
In January this year, 1,000cc cars recorded sales of 1,214 units, (543 units of Suzuki Cultus and 671 units of Suzuki WagonR) against 2,709 units in the same month in 2022. Sale of passenger car of less than 1,000cc engines plunged to only 600 units, lower by 88 percent against 4,820 units in 2022.
Sales of Suzuki’s new Alto declined to 44 units in January this yeawr, compared with 3,864 units in January last year. The Suzuki Company did not produce any Alto vehicles in this January due to the unavailability of the raw material.
In the category of commercial vehicles, sales of buses and trucks saw a decrease to 470 units in January 2023 from 778 units in January last year.
However, the sale of pick-ups and jeeps increased to 4,846 units from 3,625 units sold during the same period in 2022 because of an addition in the category of Sazgar Haval. The major reason was a massive increase in Honda HR-V and BR-V sales to 1,084 units against 418 units during the same period in year 2021.
Tractor sales also declined to 3,406 units from 4,966 units in January last year. Motorbike and Rickshaw sales also decreased to 109,558 units in January this year against 153,658 units in the same period in 2022.
According to a report by the Topline Securities, Pakistan’s car sales (including sales of non-PAMA members) clocked in at around 11,500 units, down 37 percent MoM primarily led by Pak Suzuki due to the non-availability of parts amid the credit letters issue, which led to non-production days.
Hyundai sales rose 81 percent MoM where Sonata was up 241 percent MoM to 191 units and Tuscon was up 69 percent MoM to 620 units in January this year.
Amongst Tractors, Millat Tractors sold 2,203 units in January this year up from 501 units in December last year. It was followed by Al-Ghazi Tractors which sold 1,203 units in January this year compared to 514 units sold in December last year, primarily due to easing of production issues. This took total tractor industry sales to 14,919 units in 7MFY2023 down 53 percent YoY due to plant shutdown, lower consumer buying power, floods and higher prices.
