(Photo Courtesy of AMIC)
By Ahmed Amer
Car sales declined last May, registering a decrease of 14% in comparison to the same month last year, according to the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC).
Estimated sales in May 2015 were at 20,152 cars, compared to 23,566 cars, according to sales statistics approved by the agents and members of AMIC.
This decline is the second recorded this year, after sales in April registered a decrease of around 3%, through selling 21,700 units compared to 22,400 during the same period a year earlier.
According to the statistics, sales of private cars decreased by 22%, at around 13,000 cars, compared to 16,600 in May 2014. Buses registered sales of around 3,000 units in comparison with 2,600, an increase of 14%.
Trucks sales decreased by 3%, where 4,200 trucks were sold, compared to 4,400 in May, 2014.
The total registered sales during the first five months of the current year increased by 4.8% in comparison to the same period last year, where 114,000 cars were sold in comparison to 108,800 between the start of January to the end of May 2014.
According to AMIC’s data, sales of locally-assembled buses exceeded their fully imported counterparts. 18,200 locally-assembled buses were sold compared to 16,700 imported ones in the first five months of last year, with an increase of 8.7%. On the other hand, the sales of imported buses stopped at 4,900 buses compared to 5,200 during the previous period, a decrease of 5.8%.
The trucks market stabilised during the current year, where 8,000 imported units were sold, compared to 6,900 last year, an increase of 18.2%.
However, the sales of the locally-assembled trucks increased, recording 6,000 sold units compared to 5,000 last year, an increase of 18.4%.
Private cars achieved a sales leap in fully imported units, with an increase estimated by AMIC at 22%, with total sales of 47,200 cars compared to 38,700 in the period between January and May 2015. As for locally-assembled private cars, they recorded sales of 29,500 cars compared to 36,000, a decrease of 18.2%.
