SOUTH African car dealers sold 12 930 new cars last month, and expectations are the number will increase this month too.
In April, sales had nosedived year-on-year by over 98%, with only 574 new cars sold, as Southern Africa\’s biggest economy went under a Covid-19-imposed lockdown.
Statistics for new vehicle sales released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) for last month show that not only did local sales increase, exports too have picked up, with 10 819 cars sent out of the country.
May figures, when compared to last year, show domestic sales dropped by 68% from the 40 428 sold last year, but is a noteworthy improvement from April this year.
Similarly, export sales declined by 64% year-on-year, when compared to the 30 152 vehicles exported in May last year.
“This was an improvement on April 2020 considering many vehicle manufacturers will only commence production in June 2020,” Naamsa says.
Overall, out of the total reported sales, 87,3% represented dealer sales, 7,9% sales to government, 2,9% to industry corporate fleets, and an estimated 1,9% represented sales to the vehicle rental industry.
Naamsa says domestic sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses at 3 073 units during May 2020 had recorded a huge decline of 74,8% from the corresponding month last year.
Sales of medium and heavy truck segments of the industry also remained weak registering a fall of 55,5% for medium commercial vehicles, and 62,8% for heavy trucks and buses.
While the performance of vehicle exports over the course of 2020 remains linked to the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic, manufacturers are gearing up for full production from 1 June 2020 onwards, and major export destinations are starting to ease their lockdown restrictions.
This means vehicle export figures are anticipated to start gaining momentum again, Naamsa says.
Under normal market circumstances positive indicators such as sharp petrol price decreases, substantial interest rate drops, below-inflation vehicle price increases, dealer incentives and low inflation would support the new vehicle market.
However, how far these dynamics will move consumers and businesses into new vehicle purchases over the balance of the year remains unclear.
In South Africa, the automotive industry contributes around 6,4% to the gross domestic product with revenue in South Africa alone at about N$500 billion.
Exports reached N$201,7 billion – at least 15,5% of South Africa\’s total exports.
Source: namibia.com.na
