By Ahmed Kamel Egypt's automotive market is picking up and sales have taken an uptrend since the beginning of the year. Car sales jumped 54.1 per cent to 15,526 units in June, up from 10,077 units in the same month a year earlier, the Cairo-based Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) said in a statement, a copy of which was made available to The Egyptian Gazette. Sales of trucks rose by 24.8 per cent to 2,619 units in June, up from 2,098 units in the same month last year, AMIC data showed. "Sales of CKD (completely knocked down or locally assembled) units surged 32.2 per cent to 40,624 in the first half (H1) of 2018, compared to 30,738 in the corresponding period a year earlier," AMIC spokesperson Khaled Hosni told local media. Sales of buses dipped 15.1 per cent to 1,314 units in June 2018, down from 1,142 in the same month the previous year, AMIC data showed. "Sales of CBU (completely built up abroad or imported) cars jumped 51.1 per cent to 38,850 units in H1 2018, up from 25,710 on the same period a year ago," Hosni said. The automotive market was hit immediately after the currency float in November 2016. Car sales plunged 31.6 per cent to 136,600 units in 2017, down from 199,200 in 2016 in the same period the previous year, according to AMIC data. The Central Bank of Egypt floated the pound on November 3, 2016 to eradicate a parallel foreign exchange market. The US dollar shot up from LE8 prior to the currency float to LE17.8 on the local market. Car sales totalled 195,869 in 2013. In 2014, auto sales rose to 292,000, but fell again to 279,000 cars in 2015, AMIC data showed. The automotive traders ascribed the slump in 2017 to the higher cost of imported cars, spare parts and components. Prices shot up after the currency float on the back of the higher cost of imports. The traders also blamed lower retail bank loans for car sales in keeping with CBE regulations. In 2015, the CBE reduced the maximum limit for loans to customers and all their related members - subsidiaries - to 20 per cent of the capital base, down from 25 per cent for each client. It has given banks a three-year period of grace to adjust to this new rule. However, the automotive traders say the market has stabilised over the past few months thanks to a stabilised foreign exchange (FX) market. Raafat Masrouga, honorary chairman of AMIC, expects car prices to decline by the end of 2019. "The decline in prices will be set by the FX rate. By the end of 2019, prices will fall," Masrouga was quoted as saying by the local media.
