Auto sales continued to decline in September: Auto sales in September dropped 5% m-o-m to record 9.5k vehicles, down from 10k in August, according to figures from the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) seen by EnterpriseAM. This marks the second consecutive decline in monthly vehicle sales, signaling a slowdown after four months of growth between April and July.

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Remember: The vehicle market witnessed a 43% m-o-m drop in March, with sales plummeting to just 4.2k vehicles — the lowest number of auto sales we’ve seen since we started keeping track in January 2019.

The decline was driven by car sales: Passenger car sales registered a 8.9% m-o-m decline to 7.6k vehicles. However, bus sales rose 20.4% m-o-m to 727 vehicles and truck sales continued their growth from the previous month, rising 10.3% m-o-m to 1.2k units.

On a yearly basis: September’s total auto sales were down 3.4% y-o-y from the nearly 9.9k units sold during the same month last year. The fall was driven by a 3.7% y-o-y drop in passenger car sales, as well as a 6.8% y-o-y decrease in truck sales. Bus sales, however, saw a 5.5% y-o-y increase.

We saw this coming: The auto market remains volatile due to a continued slowdown in the number of cars entering the country, driving “crazy price increases” in both the new and used car markets, head of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce's auto division Nour Darwish previously told EnterpriseAM. Hatla2ee CEO Samy Swellam similarly told us how an “ongoing halt in imports, difficulties in accessing foreign currency for import transactions, and global economic crises have further driven up international car prices.”

Could localizing the industry tackle the problem? With the continued import restrictions on vehicles that hit the sector, foreign companies are increasingly looking towards local manufacturing operations.We ran an Inside Industry last month that dove into the challenges automakers in Egypt are facing in the push to localize the auto industry.

The decline may carry over to the end of the year: Khaled Saad, head of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told EnterpriseAM that the market could close 2024 with a 10-15% decline in sales due to recent restrictions.

Relaxed import financing rules could help: On the bright side, news that the government is loosening restrictions on bank financing for non-essential imports — including vehicles — may bode well for the embattled sector. We have more on the reported policy shift in the news well, above.

The figures don’t quite tell the whole story: AMIC figures reflect data contributed by member distributors, who include most, but not all, industry participants.

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