The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa’s July sales report indicates a continuation in the modest growth trend experienced during the year so far, with aggregate industry sales registering a 18,3 per cent (8 381 units) gain over the corresponding month last year.
With all the major segments recording gains over July 2011 (aggregate sales up to 54 067 from 45 686 units), domestic year-to-date sales remain 11,6 per cent ahead of the same seven months last year. Out of the total disaggregated 51 476 vehicles sold (which exludes Mercedes-Benz South Africa, who continues to provide Naamsa with a single sales figure for all its segments), 80,3 per cent represented dealer sales , 12,3 per cent represented rental industry sales, 3,8 per cent came from industry corporate sales and 3,6 per cent of the sales came from government.
Aggregate new car sales for July 2012 reflected an 18,2 per cent improvement over Juy 2011 (37 844 from 32 027) with the daily selling during July this year at five year high levels. Factors that have added to the strong demand for new car include the rental industry’s continued re-fleeting (16,5 per cent of July 2012 sales), as well as low domestic interest rates, new model introductions and a competitive trading environment .
Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini buses (including estimates for Mercedes-Benz South Africa) registered an improvement of 20,8 per cent (2 370 units) over July las year – while estimated sales in the medium and heavy truck segments recorded an increase of 7,9 per cent. Even exports of vehicles produced locally, including MBSA exports, registered an improvement. At 11,6 per cent, that’s an improvement of 2 862 units over last year’s 24 763 export units sold in July.
While there are chances that the domestic economy could slow dow, the current buying trend suggests otherwise, buoyed by an interest rate reduction and vehicle affordability amongst others. Despite the uncertainty regarding the demand of exports to the weakened Euro zone, it seems the local market is doing just fine and is on track to attain a 10 per cent growth rate for 2012.
You can read the full Naamsa results sheet by clicking on the DOCUMENTS tab and downloading the PDF.
