Sales across the automotive market continue to decline, even following a slight recovery from the crisis of low foreign exchange reserves that began at the beginning of this year. Sales registered a 26.4% decline over the first five months of 2016. From January to June, the market saw the trade of 101,600 units, which comparatively is a significant drop from 138,000 units in the same period last year. Passenger car sales registered 70,800 cars sold in the first six months of 2016, a decline of 26% compared to 95,000 cars sold as of June 2015, a report by the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) disclosed. Bus sales dropped by 30% to register 11,800 units sold, compared to 16,700 buses year-over-year (y-o-y), while sales of trucks dipped by 27% to register 19,000 trucks sold compared to 26,000 y-o-y. Sales of locally-assembled cars also declined, registering sales of 51,100 units in the first six months of 2016 compared to 64,200 units y-o-y, a 20.4% decline. Imported car sales fell by 31.5% from 73,800 units sold in the first half of 2015 compared to 50,500 cars in the same period this year. June alone saw a 32% decline in car sales, the AMIC report showed. It is expected that sales in the car market will continue to wane. The trade market recorded 16,300 units traded that month, compared to 23,900 cars sold in June 2015. The report showed a 33% decline in passenger car sales in June with sales of 12,200 cars, compared to 18,200 cars sold in June 2015. Bus sales declined by 42.7%, recording sales of 1,400 buses in June compared to 2,500 y-o-y. Truck sales declined by 14.7% with 2,600 trucks sold, compared to 3,100 trucks in the same month last year. According to the report, Chevrolet continued to top the market during the period from January to June, representing 21.7% of the total sales. Hyundai followed Chevrolet in second place with 19.8% of total sales. The car market is experiencing fierce competition between the two brands this year. Nissan came third with 12.2%, followed by Toyota with 6.2%, Kia with 5%, and then Mitsubishi with 4.9% of the total sales. Suzuki came in seventh place, acquiring 4.8% of the market sales, followed by Opel with 4%, and Chery Ghabour with 3%. Peugeot was next with 2.2%, then King Long with 1.8% and finally Geely Ghabour with 1.8%. Other brands in the market took about 12.5% of the total sales during the first six months of 2016. The auto market has seen a slight recovery from the sales crisis in the beginning of this year. After the market recorded a fall of 31.2% during the first quarter in 2016, the pace of decline slowed, recording a 25.2% decrease in sales during the first five months of this year. The period from January until the end of May recorded sales of 85,300 cars, compared to 114,100 cars in the corresponding period of 2015. An AMIC report on car sales during the first five months of 2016 showed a decline in private car sales by 24%, recording 58,500 cars, compared to 76,700 cars as of the end of May 2015. Bus sales fell by 27%, recording 10,300 units sold compared to 14,100 buses in the same period in 2015. Truck sales also fell by 29%, recording 16,400 units sold compared to 23,100 as of the end of May 2015. Assembled vehicle sales declined domestically by 20.3%, recording 42,800 vehicles sold in the first five months of 2016, compared to 53,800 vehicles in the same period in 2015. Imported car sales also fell by 29.6%, from 60,200 cars sold in the previous year down to 42,200 cars this year. AMIC said that car sales fell by just 6% in May, which indicates an improvement in automotive sales. The market recorded sales of 18,800 cars in May 2016, compared to 20,100 cars in May 2015.
