New vehicle sales down

Sales of new vehicle exports declined 22.9 percent to 19,284 units in August, compared to the same month last year.

“This could be attributed to the current strike at the seven major manufacturing plants and further production losses would be reflected in anticipated lower export numbers for September,” said Naamsa.

Of the total reported industry sales of 56,112 vehicles, 82.8 percent represented dealer sales, and 11.4 percent represented sales to the vehicle rental Industry. About 3.3 percent of new vehicles were sold to industry corporate fleets and 2.5 percent to government.

Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies, and minibuses increased by 5.3 percent to 14,376 units in August, compared to the same month last year. Sales of vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segment increased by 24 percent.

Naamsa said the excellent performance in sales of light, medium, and heavy trucks suggested higher levels of investment spending in the economy and was in part related to infrastructural development projects.

“Domestically, expectations of lower economic growth and above-inflation new vehicle price increases would contribute to a more difficult trading environment,” it said.

“Despite a less promising outlook for the automotive sector for the balance of the year, the year as a whole would still represent the second or third best year on record in terms of domestic sales.”

Naamsa said the prevailing low interest rate environment would continue to lend support to the domestic market.

– Sapa