Automobile sales in Oman decline

Business Saturday 27/January/2018 17:34 PM
By: Times News Service
Automobile sales in Oman decline

Muscat: Total vehicle registrations in Oman plunged by 18.3 per cent to 73,798 during the first eleven months of 2017, down from 90,329 registrations for the same period of the previous year.
The fall in sales indicate the unwillingness of people to spend for high value products, especially luxury cars, as the recent slowdown influenced their spending habit.
Although car dealers do not reveal their sales figures, people in the industry privately admit that there was a fall in sales, after oil prices started declining a couple of years ago.
“Both old and new car sales were down for the last two years. People have been cautious in an uncertain economic environment,” said a top-level official in a leasing company, which provides auto finance for car purchase. The official, who does not want to be named, said that the interest rates of auto loans have stabilised, after a firm trend in 2016 and early 2017. Also, there has been a better demand for working capital fund as working capital cycle of the corporate sector is widening.
As far as vehicle registrations are concerned, a drastic fall was seen in the category of commercial vehicles and private vehicles, which dipped by 31.9 per cent and 16.6 per cent, respectively, to 12,593 units and 55,353 vehicles, according to the latest statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The taxi and driving school vehicle registrations also fell by 25.4 per cent and 27.5 per cent, respectively, to 428 and 137 vehicles, shows the statistics.
However, registrations of car rental companies and government registrations showed 18.4 per cent and 2 per cent growth, respectively, at 4,277 units and 302 vehicles. As the country witnessed a robust growth in arrivals of tourists, car rental companies need additional vehicles.
Registration for motorbikes also eased by 1.4 per cent to 616 bikes, from 625 motorbikes during January-November period under review. Oman imports vehicles for domestic sales and for re-exports to regional markets.
The Sultanate’s total vehicle registration in 2016 touched 96,202, which included 70,706 private cars. Also, the total number of vehicles in Omani roads is pegged at 1,438,130 vehicles by the end of November 2017, shows the NCSI data.