According to the Association of Lebanese Car Importers, despite the increasing promotional and advertising campaigns, the number of newly registered cars fell 12% from August 2016 to September 2016. Also, as a result of “the absence of an adapted and structured public transportation”, people are shifting their preferences towards small cars, where “90% of the registered cars are small cars with low selling prices (less than $15,000)”. Hence, this change led to a fall in importers’ companies revenues.
Moreover, the total number of newly registered commercial and passenger cars marginally fell 0.92% year- on- year (y-o-y) to 30,552 cars by the third quarter (Q3) of 2016. In details, the number of registered commercial cars rose by 18.49% y-o-y to 1,973, while the number of registered passenger vehicles dropped 2.03% to reach 28,579 cars during the first 3 quarters of the year.
In terms of car brands, Kia grasped the largest share of 18.51% of newly registered passenger cars, followed by Hyundai, Toyota and Nissan with respective shares of 14.00%, 12.90%, and 9.08%.
As for sales per importer, Natco ranked first, with the largest stake of newly registered cars with 18.52% of the total, followed by Century Motor Co. with 14.27%, BUMC and RYMCO with 14.22% and 11.83%, respectively.
Breakdown of Passenger and Commercial Cars by Q3
Source: AIA