New car sales driving higher

Johannesburg, March 2 (I-Net Bridge) - Aggregate new vehicle sales during February 2010 at 39,312 units represented a 20.5% year-on-year increase on the 32,613 vehicles sold during the corresponding month last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) reported on Tuesday.

The figure was 3.3% up on January.

Elaborating on the new vehicle sales statistics for February, NAAMSA said hat new car, light commercial and bus sales had registered exceptional gains compared to the corresponding month last year.

However, the improvement should be seen in relation to the low sales levels in February last year which had reflected the impact of the global financial crisis at the time.  Despite the low base last year, it was encouraging that total industry sales for the first two months of 2010 were 18,0% ahead of the corresponding two months in 2009.  Statistically, this
represented one of the best starts to a calendar year.

Overall, out of the total NAAMSA reported industry sales of 34,314 vehicles, 78.2% or 26,819 units represented dealer/retail sales, 12.1% represented sales to the car rental industry, 5.0% sales to Government and 4.7% represented industry corporate fleet sales.

Aggregate industry new car sales during February, 2010 had exceeded expectations and at 26,009 units reflected a massive improvement of 5,606 units or 27.5% compared to the 20 403 new cars sold during February, 2009 when sales had been particularly depressed due to the global credit crunch.

Sales of industry new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses at 11,544 units during February, 2010 reflected an improvement of 1,381 units or 13.6% compared to the 10,163 units of the corresponding month last year.

Sales of vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segments of the industry at 590 units and 1,169 units respectively had recorded a mixed performance reflecting a decline of 308 units or a fall of 34.3%, in the case of medium commercials, versus a marginal gain of 20 units or 1,7% in the case of heavy trucks and buses   compared to the corresponding month last year.

Noteworthy was the fact that bus sales had expanded year on year by a remarkable 71% in unit terms.

Exports of South African produced vehicles during February 2010 at 14,123 vehicles had registered a decline of 753 units or 5.1% compared to the 14,876 vehicles exported during February last year.

Looking at the international environment and taking account of indications of a revival in demand for South African produced motor vehicles, export sales were expected to improve in the months ahead.  At this stage, manufacturer’s projections suggested that overall industry
export sales could grow by about 32% from last year’s level of 174,947 vehicles.

Looking forward, the outlook for domestic sales for 2010 was improving and could gain momentum as economic activity levels improved further in the medium term.  NAAMSA said that demand by the car rental industry was expected to be particularly strong in the run-up to the Soccer World Cup Event starting in June, 2010.

Export sales should also show further improvement over the balance of the year.

Following the severe recession in domestic sales from the middle of 2006 through to the end of 2008, it was apparent that the automotive market in South Africa was at an early stage of what would hopefully represent a sustainable recovery.

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