Conditions in the new vehicle market remained “extremely difficult” in October, according to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA).

“The latest figures suggested lower levels of capital investment in the economy,” NAAMSA said in a statement.

The new vehicle market has experienced a near double digit decline year on year declines across all segments. In contrast, export sales of new motor vehicles have reflected a year on year improvement.

Sales in numbers

• October’s new vehicle sales at were tallied at 48 745 units. This showed a decline of 5 494 vehicles (a 10.1% drop) compared to the 54 239 vehicles sold in October last year.
• Export sales came in at 30 718 vehicles for October. This reflected an improvement of 2 999 vehicles (10.8% increase) compared to the 27 719 vehicles exported in October last year.
• All the reported industry sales tallied 48 745 vehicles.
• Dealer sales: 77.8%
• Vehicle rental industry sales: 16.5%
• Industry corporate fleet sales: 4.1%
• Government sales: 1.6%
• Consumer driven market reflected a decline of 9.5% over the past year. Total sales tallied at 32 738 units (the car rental industry accounted for 23.6% of all new cars sold during the month).
• Sales of industry new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini buses came in at 13 559 units during October. This reflected a decline of 10.7% compared to the 15 182 light commercial vehicles sold during the corresponding month last year.
• Medium and heavy truck segments were tallied at 698 units and 1 750 units respectively. This indicated substantial falls and, in the case of medium commercial vehicles, reflected a decline of 26.8% and in the case of heavy trucks and buses, and a decline of 9.2% compared to the corresponding month last year.
• New vehicle exports for October saw a 10.8% increase, compared to 27 719 vehicles exported in October last year.

“The momentum of new vehicle exports should improve further over the balance of 2016 and into 2017 thereby contributing positively to South Africa’s current account of the balance of payments,” the association said.

“Domestically, the short to medium term outlook remained extremely challenging,” NAAMSA added. “Double digit new vehicle price inflation, pressure on household disposable incomes, low levels of business confidence and relatively high interest rates would continue to impact negatively on new vehicle sales.”

NAAMSA indicated that “key economic indicators were mixed”.

“The decline in the October, 2016 Purchasing Manager’s Index suggested a difficult start for the manufacturing sector to the fourth quarter of 2016,” the association said.

“On the other hand the latest Reserve Bank leading indicator had registered positive growth for the first time in three years and represented the biggest month on month increase over the past two years,” it added and said that this “suggested the possibility of a modest improvement in the economy over the coming year to 18 months.”