New vehicle sales decelerate

Published Dec 3, 2014

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New vehicle sales have slowed from a strong year-on-year performance in September and October to register marginal growth in November.

Sales were 51 098 units last month, up 1 percent from the 50 630 vehicles sold in November last year. Total sales last month were also 13.9 percent lower than the 59 380 units sold in October.

The industry achieved year-on-year growth in sales of 11.5 percent in September and 4.7 percent in October.

Nico Vermeulen, the director of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa), said yesterday new vehicle sales had, as expected, showed consolidation following the remarkably strong sales performance in October.

Azar Jammine, the Econometrix chief economist, said superficially the sales figures did not look that good, but they were “not that negative” when you dug a bit deeper.

Jammine highlighted that there were fewer working days last month than in November last year.

He said it was dangerous to look at the month-on-month sales figures, because seasonal factors were involved and the total industry was dominated by light vehicles, with cars and light commercial vehicles accounting for 90 percent of total sales.

People held back from buying a vehicle now until the new year and it was more relevant to look at the year-on-year change in sales, which was not dramatic, he said.

New car sales declined by 2.5 percent last month to 33 278 units from the 34 123 cars sold in November last year.

Mercedes-Benz South Africa has advised Naamsa it would in future only disclose aggregated new vehicle sales data to the trade and industry department.

Without such detailed sales data, the reported commercial vehicle sales numbers are estimates of sales for the various commercial vehicle segments, including light, medium, heavy and extra heavy truck sales and bus sales.

Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini-buses increased last month by an estimated 10.8 percent to 15 076 units from the 13 608 units sold in November last year.

Sales of medium commercial vehicles dropped last month by an estimated 0.9 percent to 1 061 units and heavy truck and bus sales by an estimated 7.9 percent to 1 683 units.

Export sales of locally produced vehicles grew last month by 9.9 percent to 28 021 units from the 25 502 units exported in November last year.

Isaac Matshego, an economist at Nedbank, said passenger vehicle sales were the main drag on growth in total sales as they dropped to the lowest level in six months.

Matshego said Naamsa was unable to provide figures on sales by the rental industry and government because Mercedes-Benz South Africa did not provide its detailed sales figures.

Calvyn Hamman, the senior vice-president for sales and marketing at Toyota South Africa, said new vehicle sales last month were yet again proof of a resilient market showing steady growth with year-to-date sales at close to 600 000 units.

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