KARACHI: Pakistan’s locally assembled automobile sales declined steeply by 17 percent YoY in November 2018, contrary to growth in numbers last month.

“The volumetric decline is much anticipated given deteriorating economy, law barring tax non-filers from purchasing cars and multiple price hikes in the past 12 months,” Danyal Adil at Topline Securities said.

Moreover, sequentially, sales have declined 30 percent MoM primarily due to high base effect of last month as well as seasonal slowdown.

“In line with our sluggish auto demand outlook, during five months (July-November), unit sales declined by 4.0 percent, which is first such decline after a period of five years (normalizing for taxi scheme),” Adil added.

Indus Motors (INDU) was the only company to report YoY growth in volumes, up by 2.0 percent in November 2018. On a sequential basis, volumes fell by 15 percent MoM while for five months, sales are up 7.0 percent. Corolla sales increased by 9.0 percent YoY while sales of Hilux and Fortuner fell by 46 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

Honda (HCAR) sales fell by 23 percent YoY and 31 percent MoM while sales for five months rose by 2.0 percent. The fall in sales was led by 76 percent lower BR-V sales while sales of City and Civic units on cumulative basis fell by only 2.0 percent.

Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) performed the worst with 25 percent YoY decline in volumetric sales. Decline in sales was led by 44 percent, 39 percent and 28 percent decline in Mehran, Bolan and Ravi variants, respectively while the only variant to record growth was Cultus, up by 13 percent.