According to the Association of Lebanese Car Importers, the number of newly registered commercial and passenger cars during the first 7 months of 2015 improved by 1.06% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 23,585 cars which might be in line with the overlying factor that oil prices are on a bearish trend. In fact, in the month of July alone, the number of total newly registered cares surged by 15.23% from July of last year.
Worth mentioning, newly registered passenger cars grasped 94.50% of total registration whilst newly registered commercial cars constituted the remaining 5.50%. With that in mind, the slight progression on the sum of both came about from the yearly 1.29% increase in newly passenger registered cars to 22,288 by July, while commercial ones went down by 2.55% annually to 1,298.
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 1.1066 and Dollar/Yen 123.20, respectively by End-July. For instance, Japanese cars were the most demanded cars in Lebanon in the first 7 months, with their share improving from 34.14% in 2014, to 39.58% this year. Meanwhile Korean cars lost their hold on the number one spot, going down from 41.09% to 33.31% in 2015. European cars maintained their third rank, however with a higher market share of 21.00%, compared to18.50% in 2014.
Looking at the car brand breakdown, Kia held the largest share of 18.85% of the total, followed by 17.02% for Toyota. Furthermore, Hyundai and Nissan respectively grasped shares of 16.02% and 10.84%.
In terms of sales per importer, NATCO SAL (imports Korean manufactured Kia) maintained its holding as top performer, grasping a 17.81% share, while BUMC (imports Japanese made Toyota and Lexus) and Century Motor Co (imports Korean produced Hyundai) captured 16.98% and 15.54% of the market, respectively.
Breakdown of Passenger and Commercial Cars by June
Source: AIA