Another year of record motor vehicle sales in 2013
It’s that time of the year again where we gather at the Malaysian Automotive Association’s (MAA) office for its annual press conference announcing the overall sales performance of the automotive industry in the preceding year. This year’s announcement was incidentally timed to follow after the announcement of NAP 2014 that took place earlier this week.
In what is becoming an increasingly familiar script, 2013 turned out to be another record breaking year with sales growths that exceeded forecasts despite trying conditions. The industry saw a TIV growth of 4.5% from 2012, with sales increasing from 627,753 units to 655,793 units, exceeding MAA’s forecast of 640,000 units. It represents the fourth consecutive year since 2010 that the automotive industry sold in excess of 600,000 cars.
Following a strong start which saw the first four months consistently recording higher year-on-year figures compared to the corresponding period of 2012, TIV was in fact hit by two periods of notable decline, both of which the industry successfully recovered from. The first decline took place in May during the run-up to the 13th General Elections, where promises of reduced car prices by both political parties resulted in consumers holding back purchases of new vehicles.
After a spike coinciding with the Hari Raya period in July, which recorded the highest monthly sales volume of the year with 68,431 units, came another decline in October as a result of a wait-and-see attitude adopted by consumers running-up to Budget 2014. Things failed to pick up in November thanks to hiccups in JPJ’s botched implementation of the MYSIKAP electronic vehicle registration system that slowed down numerous transactions as a result of technical glitches.
Looking at the figures on a quarterly basis, the first and third quarter were higher than the corresponding periods of 2012, whilst the second quarter experienced considerable decline as a result of the elections. Fourth quarter TIV was marginally lower than the previous year’s volume.
In tandem with rising sales, local production volume also witnessed encouraging growth, breaching the 600,000-unit mark for the first time ever. From 569,620 units produced in 2012, total production output of the various automotive plants in the country went up 5.6% to roll out 601,407 units in 2013. This development comes in line with the Government’s intentions to promote increased local assembly of motor vehicles in the country.
Moving forward, MAA conservatively forecasts a growth of 2.0% this year that will see TIV hit a projected 670,000 units. The association also projects growth not exceeding 2.4% over the next five years culminating a projected TIV of 732,400 by 2018. These projections differ considerably from predictions by Malaysian Automotive Institute (MAI, a separate organization from MAA) which ambitiously forecast a TIV of 1 million by 2020, a target which requires consistent annual TIV growth of 7% every year in order to be possible – a very tall order to achieve in a country that already boasts the highest ownership of motor vehicles per capita in the region.
Editor’s Note: Tables and charts accompanying this article are official releases from MAA.
