SA new car sales decline further
NEW VEHICLE sales continued on a downhill trajectory last month with all major segments reflecting double digit or near double digit declines.
Figures released yesterday revealed that total new vehicle sales slumped 14.3 percent to 47 399 units last month from the 55 303 vehicles sold in September last year. Sales of cars dropped 14.4 percent year-onyear to 31 957 units while light commercial vehicles slipped 14.8 percent to 12 879 units.
The figures said medium commercial vehicles also came down 9 percent to 783 units and heavy truck and buses slumped 10.8 percent to 1 780 units.
Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine said the best that could be said for new vehicle sales was that they were not plummeting on a monthon-month basis. Except light commercial vehicles all the other segments achieved positive month-on-month growth. The other major segments are the car, medium and heavy commercial vehicle markets.
“From a month-on-month perspective we are seeing a little bit of an improvement, which might tentatively suggest a bottoming out process is taking place. But it’s very tentative.
“The third quarter was not good for new vehicle sales and gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the third quarter is likely to be a lot softer than in the second quarter,” he said.
Kamilla Kaplan, an economist at Investec, said the performance of vehicle sales was representative of subdued economic activity because business and consumer confidence remained depressed.
Kaplan said the increase in interest rates, sluggish growth in disposable income, substantial new car price increases, falling rates of vehicle financing and relatively tight credit conditions applied to households were weighing on passenger vehicle sales.
She said passenger vehicle sales were considered a leading indicator of household consumption expenditure momentum and the latest sales figures signalled the possibility of a further downturn in household consumption expenditure in the coming quarters.
Rudolf Mahoney, the head of brand and communications at Wesbank, said the average transaction value had increased by 16.8 percent between September last year and last month.
“That sums it up. New cars are becoming very expensive despite marketing incentives by manufacturers. Pricings are skyrocketing and impacting on supply and demand,” he said.
Decline
Mahoney added that new vehicle finance applications declined by 17.8 percent yearon-year last month while applications for used vehicle finance increased by 6.72 percent.
He said this was a clear indication that consumers were switching from new to used vehicle purchases.
Nico Vermeulen, the director of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa, said total industry vehicle export sales surprisingly declined by 6.5 percent to 32 876 vehicles last month from the 35 154 vehicles exported in September last year.