During Apr’23, automobile sales in Pakistan experienced a significant decline of 52% MoM | 80% YoY, to 4.5K units, this represents the lowest monthly sales since Covid-19 (Apr’20). This decline in sales can be attributed to a decline in demand mainly on the back of massive hikes in interest rates, spiralling automobile prices, repeated plant shutdowns, escalating petroleum prices, and reduced consumer affordability. The monthly decline can be attributed to deprived volumetric sales of PSMC and HCAR, which showed a decline of 74% MoM and 75% MoM, respectively. Further, auto financing declined consecutively for nine months with Mar’23 figure down by 12.83% YoY, to record 317bn. It is worth noting that auto financing used to contribute significantly, accounting for 30% to 40% of total auto sales, but it has now dropped to zero.

1,300cc segment and above posted a decline of 46% MoM. Given the Civic and City sales went down by 74% MoM.

Furthermore, 1,000cc segment sales witnessed a massive decline of 71% MoM, led by the decline in Swift, Cultus, and Wagon R, whose sales, on a monthly basis, went down by 83%, 63%, and 80%, respectively.

Sales in the below 1000cc segment went down by 70% MoM, recording 983 units.

INDU: INDU showed improvement in volumetric sales, selling 1,948 units in April 2023, up by 2% MoM compared to the previous month. The sales of Fortuner and Hilux also jumped by 19% MoM to 941 units.

PSMC: PSMC, in absolute terms, contributed most to the decline of auto sales, showing a massive decline as its sales depicted a 74% MoM decline, with the sale of 820 units of Alto in April 2023 against the sale of 2,542 units in March 2023, down by 68% MoM.

HCAR: HCAR sales were down by 75% MoM, with BRV/HRV sales recording a meager 48 units.

Tractors: Tractor sales portrayed a jump of 8% MoM in April 2023, with Millat Tractors Limited (MTL) sales declining by 55% MoM, while Al-Ghazi Tractors Limited (AGTL) sales posted a massive jump, up by 6.4x MoM.

Courtesy – AHL Research