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The latest new-vehicle sales figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa ) showed truck sales remained strong against an otherwise declining market.
November's overall domestic new-vehicle sales at 47,486 units declined 2,265 vehicles (4.6%), compared to the 49,751 vehicles sold in November 2017.
Passenger-car sales dropped 5.4% to 31,054 units and light commercial vehicles were down 6.1% to 13,695 units.
However, trucks bucked the trend with sales increases in both the medium and heavy segments. There were 804 medium trucks sold in November, an improvement of 120 units or 17.5%, while the 1,933 heavy trucks and buses sold reflected a gain of 270 vehicles or 16.2%.
It was the fifth consecutive month that both truck segments recorded increased sales, which suggested an improvement in capital investment sentiment, said Naamsa.
The association believes the current difficult economic environment was expected to continue over the medium term, partly because of the recent interest rate increase and pressure on consumers’ disposable incomes. The best that could be anticipated was for the domestic new-vehicle market to stabilise in coming months, but any recovery was likely to be modest.
An encouraging feature was the broad-based and substantial increase in the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index, the first increase since February, which could signal a possible improvement in general business conditions in about six months’, concluded Naamsa.
Top-selling trucks in November 2018:
Isuzu N-Series — 197
Volvo FH — 193
MAN TGS — 140
Hino 300 Series — 137
VW Crafter — 127
Isuzu F-Series — 114
UD Trucks Croner — 114
Scania G-Series — 102
UD Trucks Quon — 100
Hino 500 Series — 69
Source: Naamsa
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