Vehicle sales strengthen during November
15 December 2016 – The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) released Namibia’s new vehicle sales statistics for the month of November 2016 yesterday.
According to the statistics ,vehicle sales strengthened during November, recording a significant increase of 13.8% m-o-m compared to a consistent contraction over the last four months.
NAAMSA said on an annual basis, total vehicle sales contracted by 23.5% compared to 13.6% in the prior year.
Local stock brokerage and investment research firm, Simonis Storm Securities (SSS) said the monthly increase in vehicle sales can be attributed to increases in vehicle units across all categories with an exception of Buses.
“We attribute the increase to commercial banks financing arrangements (specifically Prime -1.50 or 1.25 and buy now and start paying off in February) through certain dealerships. We believe that this is unsustainable over the medium term,” SSS said.
According to NAAMSA the total vehicle sales recovered from the persistent decline since June 2016, increasing by 13.8% m-o-m to 1 317 in November 2016.
“The increase in new vehicle sales can be attributed to an increase in all vehicle categories but Buses remained constant. Passenger Vehicles grew by 16.3% m-o-m to 535 units in November 2016 compared to -9.6% recorded in the prior month. In addition, Light Commercial, Medium Commercial, Heavy Commercial and Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicles also recorded positive increases of 8.7% m-o-m, 100.0% m-o-m, 133.3% m-o-m and 30.3% m-o-m, respectively,” SSS added.
Meanwhile, on an annual basis, Light Commercial, Passenger, and Heavy Commercial Vehicles continued to contract by 32.8%, 9.0% and 73.1%, respectively. While as Medium Commercial and Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicles recorded positive annual growth of 25.0% and 34.5%, respectively.
SSS further said, the suggested aggregate value of new vehicle sales stood at N$537.2million during November 2016 compared to N$472.0 million recorded in the prior month.
“The value of new vehicle sales during the month under review grew by 13.8% m-o-m but has contracted by 10.1% y-o-y. The growth in the value of vehicle can be attributed to a 13.8% growth in Medium Commercial and Heavy Commercial and Extra Heavy Commercial vehicles to 1 317 units. This accounts for 16.5% of the total aggregated value of vehicles. We believe the increase in expensive (Heavy Vehicles) vehicles coupled with banks financing schemes has led to the upsurge in the overall value,” they added.
