Bikes’ import thrives, used car arrivals plunge

KARACHI: Import of motorcycles, new and used, registered a sharp increase while arrivals of second-hand cars tumbled during the first 10 months of this fiscal year. Rising interest of young generation towards used heavy bikes propelled imports thus pushing the two leading bike assemblers to introduce brand new bikes. In contrast, imports of used cars have been falling due to cut in age limit to three from five years and reduction in depreciation limit by the government. Figures released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed 374 per cent jump in bike imports to $4.6 million in July-April 2013-2014 as compared to $971,000 in same period last fiscal year. The trend of imports of heavy bikes has shown positive growth in 2012-2013 as it went up by 90pc to $1.5m as compared to $785,000 in 2011-2012. On the contrary, imports of cars (over 90pc used cars), plunged by 43.6pc in July-April 2013-2014 to $159.6m from $283m in the corresponding period last fiscal. Total imports of complete built unit (CBU) cars fell by 16pc in 2012-2013 to $313.6m from $375m in 2011-2012. The PBS figures did not mention number of bikes and cars in the above importing periods. Local assemblers have been active in bringing brand new costly cars, SUVs and bikes which are definitely not aimed for local assembly in Pakistan in future due to their higher engine power and meteoric prices. However, the assemblers, while trumpeting of achieving higher localisation for more job creation and vendor development in every forum, have been actively importing these vehicles. They have already marketed cars like Toyota Hybrid Prius, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Prado, Toyota Camry, Toyota Avanza, Daihatsu Terios, Honda Accord ad Honda CR-V to lure a selected class. Atlas Honda introduced brand new imported 150cc and 500cc bikes at Rs660,000 and Rs1.25m respectively. Pak Suzuki Motor Company’s imported Inazuma 250cc, Intruder 800cc and Hayabusa 1,300cc bikes, which were priced Rs675,000, Rs1.5m and Rs2.4m respectively in four to five months back, now carry price tags of Rs725,000, Rs1.6m and Rs2.5m. Out of two leading assemblers, one of them had also raised prices despite rupee appreciation against the dollar. Chairman Association of Pakistan Motorcycle Assemblers (APMA) Mohammad Sabir Shaikh said that heavy bikes are more popular in some big cities of Punjab as compared to Karachi where sales volume is slow. Due to rising number of imports many people have opened service outlets in Punjab and in Karachi dealing only in heavy bikes. “Arriving under various government schemes, the prices of bikes of two to three years old start from Rs500,000 to Rs2.5m to Rs3m and this price is certainly not a problem for the young elites of Pakistan,” he added. He claimed that in total imports, the share of used bikes of Japanese, European and American brands is higher than the brand new heavy bikes. A Japanese bike assembler had sold over 60 units of heavy bikes in the country in the last eight months, he added. Sabir said the government is also getting good revenue from the import of heavy bikes and even in some cases cumulative taxes and duties cross Rs1m per bike. He said assemblers are not importing these heavy bikes for any future local assembly in Pakistan due to their very limited customers and exorbitant prices. Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014