According to the Association of Lebanese Car Importers, the number of newly registered commercial and passenger cars during the first 11 months of 2015 increased by 3.79% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 38,037 cars which might be in line with decline in prices of new cars and new promotion due to competition. In fact, in the month of November alone, the number of total newly registered cares surged by 24.83% to 3,303 from November of last year.
Worth mentioning, newly registered passenger cars grasped 94.44% of total registration whilst newly registered commercial cars constituted the remaining 5.57%. With that in mind, the slight progression on the sum of both came about from the annual 4.05% increase in newly passenger registered cars to 35,921 by November which was slightly offset by the 0.42% yearly decline to 2,117 in commercial ones.
Notably, there was a change in the market share of car importing-countries, due to the average 15% y-o-y depreciation of both the Japanese Yen and the Euro against the US dollar to Euro/Dollar 1.13315 and Dollar/Yen 121.445, respectively by End-November. For instance, Japanese cars were the most demanded cars in Lebanon in the first 11 months, with their share improving from 35.10% in 2014, to 39.87% this year. Meanwhile Korean cars lost their hold on the number one spot, going down from 39.49% to 32.85% in 2015. European cars maintained their third rank, however with a higher market share of 20.87%, compared to 18.90% in 2014.
Looking at the car brand breakdown, Kia held the largest share of 18.24% of the total, followed by 16.01% for Toyota. Furthermore, Hyundai and Nissan respectively grasped shares of 14.47% and 10.48%.
In terms of sales per importer, NATCO SAL (imports Korean manufactured Kia) maintained its holding as top performer, grasping an 18.25% share, while BUMC (imports Japanese made Toyota and Lexus) and Century Motor Co (imports Korean produced Hyundai) captured 16.19% and 14.47% of the market, respectively.
Breakdown of Passenger and Commercial Cars by November
Source: AIA