Car sales recorded their first monthly decline in over a year, with sales last April decreasing to record 21,700 cars, compared to 22,400 in April 2014, a reduction of approximately 3%. After achieving a great boom last year by reaching 300,000 sold cars, the market atmosphere was affected by certain external factors. Among those is the Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) decisions to control the dollar trade to maintain the exchange market and limit the dangers of black market. Mercedes also announced its official withdrawal from assembling its models domestically, in accordance with the European Union Partnership Agreement. Moreover, the Volkswagen and Audi agent has refused to send its results to the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) since the beginning of the year. They attributed this to instructions imposed by the mother company. This was reflected on the total sales in comparison to last year. The market recorded sales of about 14,800 passenger cars in April, compared to 15,200 in April 2014, with a reduction of 2%, while buses sales increased to reach 2,700 buses compared to 2,500 buses, with an increase of 9%. As for trucks, they recorded decrease amounting to 12%, through selling 4,100 trucks in comparison to 4,600 during the same period the previous year. AMIC's data showed reduction in the combined sales of the domestically assembled cars in comparison to the rates of the first four months of last year, where 44,300 cars were sold in comparison to 45,900 cars in the first four months of 2014. The imported cars maintained their performance through an increase of 26.3% and sales of 49,600 cars in comparison to 39,300 during the same period of comparison. Source: Daily News Egypt
