New vehicle sales dropped 23,4% in May, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said on Tuesday.
”Domestic new car, light and medium commercial vehicle sales reflected severe weakness during May 2008,” the association said.
Aggregate new vehicle sales, reported through Naamsa at 39 533 units, registered a steep decline of 12 095 units, or 23,4%, compared with the 51 628 vehicles sold during the corresponding month last year.
A number of factors contributed to the sharp downturn, including public holidays at the beginning of the month, new vehicle price increases over a broad range of products, and the social turmoil experienced in areas of the country, Naamsa said.
The new car market has been under severe pressure for some time and trading conditions worsened considerably during the month of May 2008 ”as the current tight monetary policy regime impacted on domestic consumer spending”.
New car sales for May were at 22 647 units, reflecting a drop of 8 850 units, or 28,1%, compared with the 31 497 new cars sold during May 2007, Naamsa said.
Factoring in the new car sales not reported in detail, the year-on-year decline amounted to 10 250 units, or a fall of 28,7%.
Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses amounted to 13 992 units during May 2008. This reflected a drop of 2 911 units, or 17,2%, compared with the 16 903 unit sales during the corresponding month last year.
Taking account of the light commercial vehicles sales reported by the Associated Motor Holdings Group, the year-on-year decline amounted to 3 484 units, or 19%.
Sales of vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segments of the industry also come under pressure in May at 912 units and 1 982 units, respectively. This represented a huge decline of 464 units, or 33,7%, in the case of medium commercials, and a modest gain of 130 units, or 7%, in the case of heavy trucks and buses — compared with the corresponding month last year.
However, on the new vehicle export side, the industry continued to perform well and export sales were supporting the operations of vehicle and component producers, Naamsa said.
During May 2008, the industry exported 23 201 new vehicles compared with the 14 820 vehicles exported during May last year.
For the rest of the year, new vehicle sales were expected to remain under pressure as a result of the cumulative effect of interest-rate increases, inflationary pressures, high levels of debt and the slowdown in economic activity, Naamsa said. — Sapa