KUALA LUMPUR: Vehicle sales rose 29% in March 2016 to 48,800 units from February due to the longer working months and also due to companies, with the financial year ending March 31, rushing to deliver.
The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) said today the March sales were however down 28% or 18,587 units from the 67,387 units a year ago.
Describing it as an abnormal month, it said consumers had then rushed to buy ahead of the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on April 1 last year.
As for the outlook for April, the MAA said sales volume “is expected to be better than March 2016”.
Of the 48,800 vehicles sold in March, it said 43,247 were passenger vehicles and the remaining 5,553 were commercial vehicles.
Year-to-date, total sales were 131,267 units of which passenger vehicles accounted for 117,373 units. This was a decline of 22% from the 168,379 units in the previous corresponding period.
The MAA also said production in March 2016 fell 20.4% from 60,085 units to 47,810 units.
Of the 47,810 units produced, it said 45,802 were passenger vehicles and the remaining 2,008 units were commercial vehicles.
