By Ahmed Amer
The Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) estimated 209,000 cars were sold over the first nine month of 2015, compared to 210,500 during the same period in 2014, recording a decline of 1%.
Sales of passenger cars amounted to 146,400 units, compared to 147,700 cars in the same period in 2014, a decline of 1%. Buses recorded sales of 24,900 units, compared to 22,800 units between January and September 2014, marking a 9% increase. AMIC estimated 37,700 unit trucks were sold during the first nine months in 2015, versus 40,000 units in 2014.
Car sales declined by 18% in total between 2014 and 2015.
AMIC’s official spokesperson Khaled Hosny told Daily News Egypt that the sales decline is caused by the growing dollar crisis.
The total market sales stand at EGP 24bn from January to September in 2015.
In 2014, the gross market sales of cars over the entire year amounted to EGP 30bn. In 2015, 23,100 cars were sold versus 28,200 cars in 2014, recording an 18% decline. Passenger car sales declined by 20%, dropping to 16,400 cars in 2015 versus 20,500 units in 2014. Bus sales also dropped by 13% from last year; only 2,500 buses were sold in September 2015, compared to 2,900 units sold in September of 2014.
AMIC said 4,000 trucks were sold in September this year, compared to 4,700 trucks last year, a decline of 14%.
Locally assembled cars sales dropped by 11.4% by the end of the third quarter of 2015; a total of 94,900 cars were sold versus 107,100 during the same period in 2014. However, 114,100 imported cars were sold in the same period this year versus 103,400 units last year.
Market sales registered a decline of 5% in August 2015; only 25,000 cars were sold compared to 26,500 cars sold in August 2014.
AMIC’s report showed Chevrolet in first place, having sold a total of 47,200 cars. Hyundai came in second with 34,700 cars. Nissan was able to get third place with 18,700 cars sold, pushing Toyota back to fourth with 18,400 units sold. Renault came in fifth with 12,400 cars and Suzuki in sixth place with 12,400 cars.
Kia remained in seventh place, with total sales of 9,800 units. Mitsubishi remained unchanged in eighth place with 8,600 cars. Geely, in ninth place, sold 5,800 units. The list ends with Skoda in 10th place with total sales of 5,100 units.
Honorary Chairman of AMIC Raafat Masrouga said companies’ send data that is exaggerated, especially during the first quarter of the year, to show better market performance. Some companies have larger stocks due to the declining demand, which contradicts AMIC’s report.
He predicts further decline over the fourth quarter of 2015, which would be revealed once companies amend their final reports for mother companies.
Some agents turned to cancelling import requests from international companies in the last four months due to the dollar crisis, the difficulty of opening letters of credit, and their large inventories.
Masrouga said agents are following wrong pricing policies that are illogical compared to the real prices without accounting for consumers. The market will mark a 5%-8 % decline by the end of this year.
