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July vehicle sales showed solid gains growing by 18.3% year-on-year to 54 067 vehicles, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe July new vehicle sales reflected another encouraging performance with sales in all the major segments registering solid gains compared to the corresponding month last year,\u201d said Naamsa on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the total domestic sales for the seven months of 2012 were 11.6% ahead of the corresponding seven months in 2011.<\/p>\n
In July, aggregate industry new car sales remained strong and at 37 844 units, including Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) reflected an improvement of 18.2% or 5 817 units compared to the 32 027 new cars sold during July 2011. MBSA provides a single total sales number for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and export sales.<\/p>\n
The year to date new car sales were 12.7% ahead of the corresponding seven months of 2011 while the daily selling rate in July had remained at five year high levels.<\/p>\n
Support from car rental companies showed strong demand in the new car market. The car rental industry accounted for 16.5% of total sales with the car rental companies\u2019 contribution expected to remain high over the next few months as the car rental industry continued to re-fleet.<\/p>\n
Sales of industry new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini buses reflected strong growth and at 13 781 units reflected a 20.8 % increase compared to the 11 411 light commercial vehicle sales during the corresponding month last year.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the sale of vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segments of the industry at an estimated 823 and 1619 units respectively recorded an increase of 60 units or 7.9% in the case of medium commercial vehicles and a rise of 9% or 134 units in the case of heavy trucks and buses compared to July 2011.<\/p>\n
Exports of South African produced motor vehicles (including MBSA export sales data) at 27 625 vehicles had registered an 11.6% improvement compared to the 24 763 vehicles exported in July 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe momentum of industry export sales should improve further over the balance of the year as various vehicle export programmes were ramped up, particularly exports of light commercial vehicles were expected to increase substantially,\u201d noted the association.<\/p>\n
The automotive sector continued to perform remarkably well despite prospects of further slowing in the domestic economy, said the association. Historically low interest rates, further improvement in vehicle affordability in real terms, improving demand for credit by both households and business is expected to support domestic sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent 0.5% reduction in interest rates should also underpin sales of consumer durable products, particularly new motor vehicles. The highly competitive trading environment, attractive incentives and new model introductions would also support demand. In terms of domestic sales, the industry remained on track during 2012 for growth of around 10%.\u201d<\/p>\n
GMSA<\/a> captures 11,8% of market in July<\/strong><\/p>\n General Motors South Africa (GMSA<\/a>) reported sales of 6 402 vehicles for July for a market share of 11,8%. This performance came in on the back of higher demand for new vehicles that saw a total of 54 067 deliveries reported to NAAMSA which was 18,3% up on the sales recorded for July 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cSales recorded in July pushed the year on year growth in the motor industry to 11,6%, somewhat above the 10% levels suggested by industry forecasters early in the year\u201d, says Malcolm Gauld, GMSA\u2019s Vice President Sales and Marketing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is our view that this higher than anticipated growth is unlikely to be sustained through to the end of the year. It is more likely that the industry will see month-on-month growth in single digits in the coming months in a softer market.<\/p>\n \u201cThe past month again saw relatively strong sales through the Government and Rental channels, as the process of fleet renewals continues. However, the Dealer Channel performance mirrored the prior month\u2019s volumes, with widespread industry offers targeting the retail customer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe re-distribution of sales in the passenger vehicle segment continues with a focus on the \u2018A\u201d and \u2018B\u2019 segments where competition is intense. GMSA is well represented in this market with its Chevrolet Spark, Aveo, and Sonic products.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the passenger market sector Chevrolet products performed well in July with the Cruze ranked 8th in sales and the Aveo 9th. On the back of this solid performance the Chevrolet brand has experienced volume growth of 9% year-on year.<\/p>\n \u201cSales of light commercial vehicles were well up on July 2011 with growth of just under 21% experienced. That has raised year on year growth for this sector up to 9,7% \u2013 an encouraging indicator for commercial activity. In this sector the new Chevrolet Utility continues its segment leadership achieving sales of 1 747 units for 56% segment share.<\/p>\n \u201cA positive for the industry going forward is the reduced cost of finance. This is being mitigated by the continued high cost of fuel and the threat of imported cost pressures. <\/p>\n