South African new vehicle sales in October were down 16.9% year-on-year compared with a fall of 22.4% y/y in September, figures from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) on Tuesday showed.
Aggregate NAAMSA reported new vehicle sales for October 2009 at 31 622 units reflected a decline of 6 422 vehicles, or 16.9%, compared with the 38 044 units sold during the corresponding month last year.
Factoring in aggregate vehicle sales reported by the AMH/AAD Group, the year-on-year decline amounted to 12.5%.
The Association commented that domestic new car sales, supported by seasonally strong sales to the car rental industry, had shown encouraging improvement.
Moreover, new car sales had registered a welcome improvement compared to the previous month of September 2009, NAAMSA said.
However, new commercial vehicle sales in all segments had continued to reflect weakness, it said.
For October 2009 NAAMSA reported new car sales at 20 836 units reflected a decline of 2 239 units or 9.7% compared to the 23 075 new cars sold during October 2008.
Factoring in aggregate new car sales reported by the AMH/AAD Group, the year-on-year decline had amounted to 942 units or a substantially lower decline of 3.7%.
This represented a further improved performance in relation to previous months.
Moreover, the selling rate of total new cars per day during October 2009 had remained relatively high for the third consecutive month.
Sales of NAAMSA new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses at 9 204 units during October 2009 reflected a decline of 3 171 vehicles or 25.6% compared to the 12 375 units of the corresponding month last year.
Taking account of the light commercial vehicle sales reported by the AMH/AAD Group, the year on year decline amounted to 3 201 units or 24.4%.
Sales of vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segments of the industry had also registered falls and the October 2009 sales of medium commercials at 627 units and sales of heavy commercials at 955 units had registered a decline of 184 units or 22.7%, in the case of medium commercials, and 828 units, or 46.4%, in the case of heavy and extra heavy trucks and buses compared with the corresponding month last year.
The continued weakness in medium and heavy truck sales suggested ongoing lower investment spending in the economy, said NAAMSA.
Industry export sales had improved significantly recording the best monthly performance for 2009 to date.
Overall, out of a total NAAMSA reported industry sales of 31 622 vehicles, 74.0% or 23 410 units represented dealer/retail sales, 16.2% sales to the car rental industry, 4.9% sales to government and 4.9% sales into auto industry corporate fleets.
The association said with ten months of calendar 2009 accounted for, aggregate industry new vehicle sales at 330 547 units reflected a decline of 28.8% compared to the 463 968 vehicles sold during the corresponding ten months of last year.
NAAMSA said vehicle export sales during October 2009 had surprised on the upside and while aggregate industry export sales at 20 948 vehicles reflected a decline of 7 149 vehicles or a fall of 25.4% compared with the 28 097 vehicles exported during October last year October's new vehicle export sales had registered a massive improvement of 6 975 vehicles or a gain of 49.9% compared with the previous months of September 2009 when 13 973 vehicles had been exported.
The better performance suggested that a recovery in demand in a number of export markets was under way, probably on the back of demand stimulation packages and fiscal support measures.
NAAMSA said that overall, the latest domestic sales figures reinforced the view that the industry was at an early stage in emerging from the extremely severe recession in the automotive market which had started mid-2006.
It said expected further improvement in the months ahead was likely to be slow and hesitant off an extremely low base.
"The lagged benefits of the 5% cumulative reduction in interest rates since the end of 2008 should support the recovery.
"The welcome month on month improvement in export sales over the past two months would also provide much needed support to auto parts and vehicle producers," concluded NAAMSA.
