Australia’s new light-vehicle sales plunged to their lowest level in eight years in June, as the shortage of cars and parts resulting from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami continued to stall the market.
Overall LV deliveries in the month slid 11.6% from year-ago to 96,157 units, well below prior-year’s record 108,722, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Ford Falcon, down 30%, pushed out of top-10 best-selling models.
FCAI CEO Andrew McKellar says the results make clear June sales continued to be affected by supply constraints from Japan.
“(However), manufacturers and distributors affected by the Japanese natural disaster are reporting a reliable return of supply,” McKellar says in a statement. “We would expect the effect to dissipate over coming months.”
The Japanese bottleneck helped push Australia’s first-half LV sales down 6.6% to 496,236 units, from prior-year’s 531,168, the FCAI says.
New-car deliveries fell 10.7% in June to 54,322 units, compared with year-ago, for a 6-month total down 8.5% to 277,686.
The SUV segment dropped 12.5% for the month to 21,518 units and a year-to-date total off 3.9% to 114,707. Light-commercial vehicles dropped 12.4% to 17,396, with first-half sales slipping 3.1% to 90,750.
FCAI data shows 1,000,642 new LVs were sold in the Australian financial year to June 30, the fourth time the 1 million-unit sales barrier has been broken in a fiscal year.
“Depending on the extent of the rebound in supply, we remain hopeful that total sales of more than 1 million vehicles are still achievable for the full year in 2011,” McKellar says.
The launch of the locally manufactured Holden Cruze helped domestic-built vehicle sales outperform the market, with a 2.2% rise for the month.
GM Holden claimed market leadership for the second month in a row in June with 12,827 deliveries. Toyota maintained the No.2 spot with 12,514, and Ford claimed No.3 with 9,216.
GM Holden says its market share for June was 13.3%, as its two locally produced models, the Commodore and Cruze, were the industry’s second and third best-selling cars, overall.
The Commodore dominated the large-car segment with 3,809 deliveries in the month for a 53.9% share. The Cruze small car saw its best-ever monthly sales with 3,387 units, making it the runner-up in the small-car segment with a 14.3% share.
The Mazda3 was June’s top-selling model with 4,212 deliveries, giving it a 180-unit first-half lead over the Commodore, Australia’s best-selling model for the last 15 years.
The Ford Falcon large car saw deliveries tumble 30% year-on-year in June to 1,847 units, pushing the car out of the top-10 sales models.
GM Holden Sales, Marketing and Aftersales Executive Director John Elsworth says June traditionally is a strong selling month for the industry, with multiple incentives competing in the market.
He says the auto maker has delivered 62,570 LVs year-to-date for 12.6% of the market.
Toyota is confident sales will rebound in July and August as stock levels return to normal. Despite a severe shortage of vehicles last month, the auto maker remains the clear market leader for the year with 85,100 units, more than 22,500 ahead of its nearest rival.
Toyota Sales and Marketing Senior Executive Director David Buttner says production now has returned to normal in Australia, Thailand and Japan, the three countries that produce Toyota vehicles for the local market.
“By August, the number of vehicles available to our dealerships will be back to normal,” he says, “putting us and our dealers in a position to satisfy customer demand.”
Hyundai saw its best month in June since the Australian subsidiary was established in September 2003, finishing fifth overall with sales up 6% to 8,534 units. The auto maker was third in passenger-car sales with 6,253 units.
Sister-brand Kia’s first-half deliveries grew 3.3% to 12,836 units, helped by a 65.6% surge in sales of the all-new Cerato hatchback and sedan.
Volvo set a record monthly result with 638 deliveries in June, passing the old mark of 620 units set in June 2009. First-half sales climbed 14.4% to 2,782 units, led by the XC60, up 29.3% to 970.
Renault continued its strong growth in Australia with June sales up 298.1% to 410 units, for its strongest result since April 2002.
Australia’s LV sales results are released this month as the industry forms a new organization, called the Australian Motor Industry Federation, to be the public face of the market’s vehicle retail, service and repair industry.
AMIF CEO Richard Dudley says the new group is important because the RS&R industry is the country’s largest small-business sector, representing 100,000 companies, 310,000 employees and an aggregated turnover of A$160 billion ($171.1 billion) a year.
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