Total New Cars Registration up by 0.39% in First Month of 2015

According to the Association of Lebanese Car Importers, the number of newly registered commercial and passenger cars increased from 2,551 in January 2014 to 2,561 in January 2015.

The number of newly registered commercial cars decreased from 183 in January 2014 to 125 in January 2015.

Meanwhile, the number of newly registered passenger cars rose by 2.7% year-on-year to 2,436 cars.

Japanese cars continued to account for the largest share of total new passenger cars registration with a stake of 39.82%, followed by 27.87% for Korean cars and 25.86% for European cars. The domination of Japanese and Korean cars indicates that Lebanese consumers are still favoring cost-efficient cars with low-price tags.

The lower oil prices might have been behind the 27.02% y-o-y increase in the number of newly registered European cars. The weak yen, which went from 102.72 to the dollar at the end of January 2014 to 117.49 to the dollar at the end of January 2015, might explain the 18.58% y-o-y rise in the number of registered passenger Japanese cars.

In terms of car brands, Kia held the largest share of 16.63% in the total of newly registered passenger cars, followed by 15.52% for Toyota, 12.52% for Nissan and 11.25% for Hyundai.

Markedly, some important changes occurred in the market shares for Lebanese car importers:

Some importers witnessed a downtick in their market share. NATCO’s market share decreased from 21.21% in January 2014 to 15.81% in January 2015. Century Motor Co’s market share also fell from 14.94% in January 2014 to 10.93% in January 2015.

Other importers witnessed an increase in market share. BUMC’s share increased from 14.54% in January 2014 to 15.78% in January 2015, Rymco’s share rose from 12.15% in January 2014 to 13.04% in January 2015 and Bassoul Heneine’s market share advanced from 8.86% in January 2014 to 9.25% in January 2015.

 

 

 

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