Malaysian Sales Static in August; Proton Quits Iran

Malaysian new-vehicle sales edged down in August to 51,720 units from 52,219 a year earlier.

The Malaysian Automotive Assn. says the result was up 6.5% from July thanks to industry promotions and the delivery of back orders after the restoration of the Road Transport Dept.’s online registration system.

The result left the year-to-date total up 3.9% at 384,730 units.

The MAA says in a statement it expects little change in the September result, with a shorter sales month offsetting the ongoing promotional campaigns.

Car sales of 46,901 units in August were down 117 from a year earlier, while commercial-vehicle deliveries edged 4.7% lower to 5,710.

After eight months, new-car sales were up 5.2% at 345,823 units while CV deliveries fell 5.8% to 39,447.

Domestic production was little changed in August at 43,688 units, up 236 from a year earlier. The car build rose 219 units to 40,206, while CV production edged up 17 units to 3,482.

Year-to-date output of 342,958 units was down from year-ago’s 345,512.

Car production edged up to 317,162 units from 315,940 units at the same time last year, but CV output dropped 12.8% to 25,796.

Elsewhere, MAA says its members have expressed “grave concerns and reservations” over the Ministry of Transport’s ruling that all new models must be installed with an emergency call (E-call) device from January 2019.

“MAA had urged the government to defer the implementation of the ruling until all issues and concerns raised by the industry have been addressed,” the trade group says in its newsletter.

Proton Holdings, meantime, says its wholly owned subsidiary in Iran has been liquidated without ever going into operation.

Proton once saw Iran as one of the core markets offering future growth, and Proton Motor Pars was established in 2011 to assemble vehicles and produce spare parts. But PMP’s demise was foretold in January when Proton majority owner DRB-Hicom said it had no plans to operate the Iranian subsidiary.