Johannesburg - New vehicle sales were dented last month by the public holidays that resulted in two long weekends.
Figures released on Monday revealed that new car sales in April dropped 1.9 percent to 30 184 from the 30 778 sold in April 2014. Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini-buses fell six percent year-on-year to 12 077, medium commercial vehicles were down 4.7 percent to 777 and heavy truck and buses dropped 6.8 percent to 1465.
National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa director Nico Vermeulen said intense competition in a challenging, difficult trading environment had resulted in incentive packages to promote new vehicle sales while a modest recovery in the used vehicle market had also been noticed.
Industry new vehicle exports grew last month by 40.5 percent to 23 615 from the 16 802 export sales in April 2014.
Vermeulen said vehicle exports for this year were on target to improve by about 25 percent to a record of about 325 000, contributing positively to South Africa’s current account of the balance of payments and industry production levels.
MARGINAL GROWTH PROJECTIONS
He said Naamsa continued to project marginal volume growth in domestic sales based on an assumption of a slight improvement in South Africa’s economic growth rate, relative stability in automotive industry industrial relations, stable interest rates and unchanged credit ratings.
Rudolf Mahoney, the head of research at Wesbank, said there were 19 working days excluding Saturdays in April both this year and last year but the public holidays last month had resulted in long weekends at the beginning and end of the month, which were the busiest trading periods in the month.
Mahoney said Wesbank believed the new vehicle market would “bounce back” in the second half of 2015.
Nicholas Nkosi, head of vehicle and asset finance personal markets at Standard Bank, said the decline in new car sales in April was not surprising given the holidays and the continued pressure on new car sales.
Isaac Matshego, an economist at Nedbank, said the outlook for the new vehicle market this year remained murky in line with the domestic economic growth outlook.
Business Report