Car sales fell by 29.3% over the first four months of 2016 in a year-on-year (y-o-y) comparison after a slight improvement.
The Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) issued a report stating that the market traded 66,400 units between January and the end of April compared to 93,900 units in the same period of 2015.
The report stated that the sale of passenger cars fell by 30%, recording a total sale of 44,900 cars compared to the 63,700 cars sold in the same period of 2015.
The sale of buses fell by 25%, with 7,400 buses sold versus the 11,250 sold in the first four months of 2015. The sale of trucks also fell by 31%, with total reported sales of 13,000 trucks compared to a total of 18,900 sold in the same period last year.
The sale of locally assembled cars fell by 25.1%, recording 33,200 sold units compared to the 44,300 units sold in the first four months of last year. The sale of imported cars fell by 33%, recording 33,200 units, compared to the 49,600 units sold in the same period in 2015.
The AMIC report showed that car sales dropped by 23% in April, where the market registered 16,700 transactions versus 21,700 in April 2015.
The report cited that passenger car sales fell by 22%, recording 11,500 units sold in April compared to 14,800 sold during the same period last year.
Bus sales fell 30.6% to 1,900 busses from 2,700 busses sold last April. Truck sales also fell by 19.3% to 3,300 trucks this April from 4,100 units in April 2015.
AMIC’s report indicated that Chevrolet was the top-selling brand, acquiring approximately 20.9% of all sales between January and April. Hyundai came in second with 19.5% of sales.
Nissan placed third, recording a market share of 13.1%. Toyota came in fourth with 5.8%, followed by Mitsubishi and Suzuki with 4.9% and 4.8%, respectively.
Opel seized seventh place, registering 4.2% of the total market sales. Kia came in eighth place with 4.1%, and Chery Ghabbour came in ninth with 2.8%. Peugeot dropped to tenth place with 2.4%. King Long and Geely Ghabbour came in 11th and 12th place with similar market shares of 2.1%. The remaining 13.3% of the market was distributed among other brands.
Car sales have fallen by 31.2% during the first quarter of this year, compared to the first quarter of 2015. The market recorded 49,600 transactions this year versus 72,200 sales in the first three months of 2015.
Passenger car sales in March dropped by 31.7%, recording sales of 33,400 units versus 49,000 units sold in March 2015.
Bus sales fell by 23.1% to a record 6,500 units sold versus 8,500 units in March last year. Truck sales also fell by 34.1% to 9,700 trucks from 14,700 last year.
The sales of locally assembled cars dropped by 29%. About 42,200 units were sold in March 2016 compared to 34,200 units in the same month last year. Imported car sales also dropped by 33.2% recording sales of 25,400 units versus 38,000 units last year.
AMIC’s report showed that car sales dropped by 30% in March, where the market reported 17,700 transactions versus 25,500 in the same month of 2015.
Alaa El-Saba, chairperson of El-Saba Automotive and member of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, told Daily News Egypt that the Egyptian automotive market is seeing its worst period yet, which is the result of the ongoing foreign currency crisis.
El-Saba said he believes market sales will continue to be driven down and are expected to reach as low as a 50% decline throughout the year, compared to 2015. He pointed out that sales have already dropped by 30% during the first quarter.
“Speeding up the adoption of a new automotive strategy,” he added.
