September vehicle sales climb to 7.4%

Written by Writer on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

September vehicle sales climb to 7.4%

By SHANNEN WONG
The Star Online
Tuesday October 21, 2008

PETALING JAYA : The motor vehicle industry has registered a 7.4% increase in sales volume to 50,729 units in September compared with the preceding month.

The Malaysian Automotive Association said the higher volume was mainly driven by the sales of smaller Perodua and Proton cars.

It was also due to the Hari Raya festive season, the association said in a statement yesterday.

President Datuk Aishah Ahmad said the motor vehicle industry should be able to surpass its full-year industry total volume target of 510,000 units this year.

“Sales for this year would be better than last year’s,” she told StarBiz, adding that its year-to-date sales had surpassed that of last year’s.

Sales from January to September were higher by 20% or 71,679 units to 429,913 units compared with 358,234 units in the previous corresponding period.

Sales in September were 12.77% higher than the same month last year.

“We anticipate this month to continue to be a favourable month, spearheaded by sales of Perodua and Proton,” Aishah said, adding that demand for motor vehicles would, however, gradually soften towards the year-end.

“People will normally hold back on buying and adopt a wait-till-next year attitude when its near year-end,” she said.

Meanwhile, Kenanga Research head of research Yeonzon Yeow said: “Going forward, the demand for motor vehicles would slow down due to stricter financing conditions and higher financing cost.”

The increase in September sales was generally a “seasonal pattern” due to the festive season, he said.

TA securities automotive analyst Ikmal Hafizi concurred that sales for the remaining of this year and next year would be in the downward trend due to general economic conditions. Total industry production for September was 4.86% higher at 42,638 units compared with 40,660 units in the same month last year.