Vehicle sales increase in February
A total of 1,039 new vehicles were sold in February, which represents an 18.1% month-on-month increase from the 881 sold in January.
This means that two months into 2018, 1,919 new vehicles have been sold of which 939 were passenger vehicles, 915 light commercial and 65 medium and heavy commercial vehicles.
Year to date Toyota and Volkswagen continue to hold their market share in the passenger vehicle market based on the number of new vehicles sold, claiming 37.0% and 27.0% of the market respectively.
They were followed by Mercedes at 5.2% and Ford at 5.0%, while the rest of the passenger vehicle market was shared by several competitors.
Toyota also remained the leader in the light commercial vehicle space with a 58.0% market share with Nissan in second place with a 14.0% share. Ford and Isuzu claimed 7.8% and 6.6%, respectively, of the number of light commercial vehicles sold so far in 2018, swapping places they held for the same period in 2017.
Meanwhile, in the heavy category, Hino and Mercedes started have thus far sold 7 heavy or extra heavy vehicles each representing 22.0% of the number of heavy commercial vehicles sold this year.
“Individuals are purchasing almost as many units as corporates and this is worrying in that corporates are not investing in capital goods, which is an indication of the weakened business confidence carried forward from 2017,” analysts from IJG Securities stressed.
Furthermore, tighter credit controls introduced in March 2017 have limited demand for vehicle finance. Consumers currently account for almost 90% of the private sector credit issuance and are heavily indebted.
“Given that individuals make up almost half of the total vehicles purchased and with corporates buying less and less vehicles, the slowdown in new vehicle sales is very likely to continue well into 2018,” IJG added.
