The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) on Wednesday said that aggregate new-vehicle sales in May declined to 42 907, figures which the organisation said were “uninspiring”.
The new vehicle sales statistics for the month of May were released on Wednesday for public consumption on the website of the Department of Trade and Industry.
According to stats, new vehicle sales fell from 47 832 vehicles sold in May last year, a decline of 4 925 vehicles, or a fall of 10.3%.
Naamsa said the slow growth in the domestic new car market was expected to continue for the rest of the year, while sales in new vehicles for export picked up.
“The balance of 2016 industry sales numbers [are] expected to remain under pressure as a result of subdued economic growth, double digit new vehicle price increases, the possibility of further interest rate hikes and ongoing challenges confronting consumers and businesses,” Naamsa said in the statement.
Naamsa said the low demand for new cars domestically would lead to lower vehicle imports and the country’s export of new vehicles was expected to grow.
In contrast, export sales for May were at 33 676 units, reflecting a gain of 262 vehicles, or an improvement of 0.8% compared to the 33 414 vehicles exported in the same month last year.
This improvement, Naamsa said, was “marginal”.
This trend was the same with domestic sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini buses, which reflected a decline compared to the light commercial vehicles sold during the corresponding month last year.
But Naamsa said it expected the momentum of new vehicle exports to improve over the balance of 2016 on the back of additional light commercial vehicle exports to Europe.