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Pakistan Automobiles: Feb 2019 Auto Sales Down 13% YoY

• Pakistan Auto sales are down by 13% YoY in Feb 2019, as against 4.5% YoY decrease in Jan 2019. Moreover, sales are down 13% MoM which can be attributed to lower number of working days in Feb compared to Jan. To note, measures in economic reforms package are expected to support declining volumes, however, volumes will still see a downward trend in months to come, in our view, due to slow down in economy as well as significant jump in prices in last 15 months. Total sales during 8MFY19 have come in at 163K units, down by 4.5% YoY.
• Indus Motors (INDU) reported YoY growth yet again (up 8% YoY in Feb 2019) as the strong (albeit thinning) order book continues to support sales. Fortuner sales rose 80% YoY, first YoY increase in 8 months, while Corolla continued its growth trend with sales up 23% YoY. On the other hand Hilux sales fell 72% YoY, highest YoY decline in 19 months.
• Pak Suzuki (PSMC) continued to report YoY decline in sales, down by 17% YoY in Feb 2019. Sales decline was led by Mehran, Bolan, Swift, Cultus and Ravi variants down by 33% YoY, 18% YoY, 28% YoY, 14% YoY and 14% YoY, respectively. Wagon-R was the only PSMC variant to record growth YoY (up 16% YoY).
• Honda cars (HCAR) sales fell 27% YoY, worst YoY decline since Apr 2012. This coincides with worst YoY decline in sales of city and civic variants, which fell by 24% YoY. In addition to the economic factors, decline in City and Civic variants can also be attributed to the expected launch of Civic 1.5 Turbo (substitute for Civic 1.8) in coming months. Simultaneously BR-V sales fell 45% YoY. To, note, BR-V sales have fallen YoY for the 10 consecutive month as the variant introduced in Apr 2017 loses its charm with the consumers.