Sales of locally assembled cars hike 25% in 7 months

CAIRO – 3 September 2018: Sales of locally assembled cars marked an increase of 25.8 percent during the first seven months of 2018, compared to the same months of 2017.

Sales of locally assembled cars reached 48,219 vehicles in the seven months of 2018, compared to 38,335 vehicles in the same period of 2017.

Meanwhile, exported cars recorded an increase in their sales, as well, by 53.1 percent, selling 48,162 units up from 31,450 units in the same months of 2017.

Automotive Market Information Council (AMIC) said that sales of the automotive market increased 26.8 percent in July 2018 on a year-on-year basis.

AMIC added that around 19,907 cars were sold in last July compared to 13,337 cars in July 2017.

In June, sales of automotive market hiked 54.1 percent on YoY basis, selling 15,526 units compared to 10,770 units in June 2017.

Former Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil announced in May that current investments in the auto industry is worth about $3 billion, of which $1.6 billion is in the automotive industry and $1.4 billion is in the feeder industries.

The car industry in Egypt has about 170 companies, including 19 companies that manufacture and assemble cars of all kinds, which include passenger cars, buses, micro and minibuses, and transport vehicles, and more than 150 companies engaged in the manufacture of a number of components of cars, according to Kabil.

The local market volume reached 100,000 cars in 2017, 50 percent of which are locally produced, and the exports of the automotive sector and the feeder industries amounted to $700 million in 2017.

During the last period, Egypt witnessed a recovery in its assembly market as many car companies studied to assemble their cars in Egypt, including KIA Motors, Renault, Fiat, Volkswagen and Toyota.

In March, KIA Motors and Egyptian International Trading & Agencies signed a contract to assemble KIA Cars in Egypt with an investment of LE 4.24 million during the upcoming five years, which was followed by the announcement of various car makers as Renault, Fiat and Volkswagen to study assembling their cars in Egypt.

Moreover, Executive Director of the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) Khaled Abdel Azim said that the Italian Fiat and German Volkswagen automakers are considering investing in the auto industry field in Egypt.

Similarly, a delegation from French multinational group Renault conducted field trips to a number of local car assembly lines with the Egyptian International Motors Company (EIM) – their agents in Egypt – as a part of their studies to assemble some of their models in Egypt.

Kayan Egypt also announced that the company could begin assembling SEAT cars locally by 2020, with expectations that assembling the car locally would lower its price from 25 to 30 percent.

Toyota started an assembly line in Egypt in 2012 by collecting vehicle parts for the Toyota Fortuner, while in 2017, Toyota launched a similar line of Fortuner at the Arab American Vehicles Co. with investments of $8.5 million.