The Association of Car Importers in Lebanon (denoted as AIA) recently shared its automotive report in which it explains that “As a result of the dramatic Beirut Port Explosion on 4/8/2020, the damages that importers of new cars incurred in the properties are estimated at tens of millions of dollars which will lead to the closing down of a number of companies and to the licensing of a large number of their employees and workers”.
In details, the total number of newly registered commercial and passenger cars registered slumped by 73.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 5,119 cars by August 2020. Moreover, the number of newly registered cars witnessed a yearly drop of 91.4% to reach 186 cars in the month of August 2020.
The report also showcases the consequent drop in taxes paid by the Car Importer companies. The taxes fell from $265M in 2018 to less than $33M in 2020 paid to the State treasury.
It is worth noting that the AIA refrained from sharing detailed statistics on the sales of cars, but emphasized the above clarifications regarding the industry.
Growth of Total New Cars Registered by August
Source: AIA , BlomInvest