Malaysian New-Vehicle Market Stumbles in April

Malaysia new-vehicle sales slumped 23.1% year-on-year in April, as both consumers and the industry adjust to the new goods and services tax regime.

The Motor Industry Assn. says the month’s sales of 45,187 units were down 13,554 from 58,741 a year ago.

Light-vehicle sales fell 22.1% during the month to 40,902 units and commercial-vehicle deliveries fell 31.4% to 4,285.

The result left year-to-date sales off 2.4% at 213,493 units. Within this, new-car sales eased 2.6% to 189,964 units, while the CV segment dropped fractionally to 23,529 from year-ago’s 23,627.

The industry signaled it doesn’t expect the slowdown to last, increasing domestic production 7.9% in April to 61,634 units, with the passenger-vehicle build up 6.7% to 56,745 and CV output rising 10.9% to 4,889.

With four months of the year on the books, the Malaysian industry has built 225,331 vehicles, up 6.7% from 211,151 year-ago. New passenger-car production was ahead 7.4% to 208,338 units, but the CV build eased 1.2% to 16,993.

Meantime, CIMB Equities Research says it expects Malaysian domestic-car sales to remain weak for the next three months before making a recovery in the third quarter.

The Star newspaper reports the investment house is sticking with its full-year forecast of sales of 670,000 units.

It says the April drop was exactly as forecast after consumers took advantage of special deals and made their purchases before the April 1 introduction of the 6% GST.

The new tax replaced a 10% sales and service tax.

“Our channel checks have revealed that automakers are still offering discounts and rebates to push their sales, although the magnitude is not as big as the pre-GST campaigns,” Malaysia-based CIMB Equities Research says

“We are not surprised by this development as we believe that automakers still have to find a way to market their cars post-GST, even in the current environment.”