Johannesburg: The recent momentum we’ve seen in South African new vehicle sales slowed down last month as numerous factors put a dent in domestic and export sales, Naamsa reported.
Although overall vehicle sales were up by 6.1% versus the same month last year, last month's total of 41 035 vehicles was 4.9% lower than September’s sales.
However, bakkie and van sales rebounded, with LCV sales climbing by 15.9% year-on-year, versus 3.1% for conventional passenger cars and SUVs.
The latter sector was, however, given a much-needed boost by the resurging rental car industry, which accounted for 18.2% of all car sales last month, and 14.0% of overall sales. Dealer sales accounted for 82.5% of last month’s market, while government sales represented 2.1% and corporate fleets 1.4%.
Sadly export sales declined by 30.0% to 23 685 units, although the year-to-date figure is still 12.0% ahead of the same period in 2020.
“The sigh of relief with the country’s move to adjusted alert level 1 from 1 October 2021 was short-lived due to the adverse events that occurred during the month, including the three-week strike in the steel and engineering sector as well as businesses having to endure several days of rolling blackouts during the month ahead of the local government elections,” Naamsa said in response to October’s sales numbers.
“In addition to Covid-19 supply chain disruptions resulting in vessel and container shortages consequently resulting in higher logistics costs, load shedding remained an area of great concern impacting on the ability of the industry to plan and grow.”
On the flipside, the latest Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index shows that improved business conditions are anticipated in the next six months.
On the vehicle sales charts, Toyota took its usual dominant lead, albeit falling just short of the 10 000 sales mark, this month. It was followed by Volkswagen, Nissan, Hyundai and Suzuki.
These were the 10 top-selling brands in September 2021:
- Toyota – 9 928
- Volkswagen – 5 975
- Nissan – 3 059
- Hyundai – 2 804
- Suzuki – 2 593
- Renault – 2 480
- Kia – 2 343
- Haval – 2 330
- Ford – 2 148
- Isuzu – 1 934
Unfortunately, Naamsa no longer releases individual vehicle sales numbers to the media. However we will keep you posted if the manufacturers release such figures.