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Vehicle sales see saw between September and October

Analyst expects October sales to come down but still outperform monthly average


Namibian vehicle sales for September released by the The National Association of Automobile Manufactures of South Africa (NAAMSA) indicates an increase of 0.6 % to 1,520 units sold in Namibia.
Passenger vehicle sales increased from 643 units sold in August to 755 units sold in September.
 The sales from this category lead to the increase in overall vehicle sales.
Light commercial vehicles sales stood at 694 units in September, down from 761 units in August.
 The drop in sales could also be seen in medium commercial vehicles which decreased to 25 units from 30 units.
The category of heavy commercial vehicles saw an increase in sales with 18 units sold in September.
According to Daniel Kavishe, analyst at Simonis Storm Securities, the year on year growth is robust at 27.8%, the highest yearly growth recorded this year.
He said in a recent IJG monthly report, the year to date vehicle sales stand at 12,200 units, with passenger vehicle sales representing 48.0% of total vehicle sales while light commercial vehicles represent 46.9% of total vehicle sales. He told The Economist that he projects the verified number for vehicle sales during October to be slightly lower than that of September but still higher than the monthly average of about 1200 units.
In September “Volkswagen and Toyota sold the most vehicles with 222 and 436 units respectively. Vehicle sales amongst the popular German manufacturers showed that demand for luxury cars is still buoyant. Audi sold 17 units, BMW sold 13 units and Mercedes Benz recorded 50 units,” said Kavishe. He further said the strikes in South Africa seem to have had a moderated impact on September vehicle sales.  This effect is expected to carry over into October moderately although the major impact was on component manufacturing.
“The purchase of new vehicles remains well above the monthly average suggesting that our forecasts for the overall year end values have been revised upwards.  The strikes, which mainly seem to be affecting the availability of parts, may have been offset in Namibia by sheer consumer demand,” he said. Kavishe said the low interest rate environment has made credit cheap and readily available for individuals to purchase vehicles. The increase in attractive package deals from the local dealers and the affordability of banking loans has maintained the current demand. “The booming business activity in construction and tourism, (International conferences) may have also had some positive externalities in the market resulting in sales remaining buoyant in this sector. The  Adventure World Travel Summit suggests that demand for passenger vehicles may remain buoyant,” he said. “Commercial vehicle sales paint a different picture with sales from most categories recording a decrease. Extra heavy vehicles purchases, which have been increasing rapidly since the beginning of the year, have dropped sharply,” added Kavishe.

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