Strong truck sales buck trend in SA
COMMERCIAL NEWS/ Naamsa’s latest new-vehicle sales figures show that medium and heavy segments recorded fifth consecutive month of growth, writes Denis Droppa
The latest new-vehicle sales figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) showed truck sales remained strong against an otherwise declining market.
Last month’s overall domestic new-vehicle sales at 47,486 units declined 2,265 vehicles (4.6%) compared to 49,751 vehicles sold in November last year.
Passenger-car sales dropped 5.4% to 31,054 units, and light commercial vehicles were down 6.1% to 13,695 units.
However, trucks bucked the trend with sales increases in both the medium and heavy segments. There were 804 medium trucks sold in November, an improvement of 120 units, or 17.5%, while the 1,933 heavy trucks and buses sold reflected a gain of 270 vehicles, or 16.2%.
It was the fifth consecutive month that both truck segments recorded increased sales, which suggested an improvement in capital investment sentiment, said Naamsa.
The association believes that the current difficult economic environment is expected to continue over the medium term, partly because of the recent interest rate increase and ongoing pressure on consumers’ disposable incomes.
The best that could be anticipated is for the domestic new-vehicle market to stabilise in coming months, but any recovery is likely to be modest.
An encouraging feature was the broad-based and substantial increase in the latest purchasing managers’ index, the first increase since February, which could signal a possible improvement in general business conditions in about six months, concluded Naamsa.