Vehicle Sales In February 2010 Up 1.09 Per Cent

Sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles in February 2010 rose 1.09 per cent year-on-year to 40,654 units from 37,386 units but on a month-on-month basis, it was down by 19.7 per cent.

The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) attributed the lower sales due to short working month because of the Chinese New Year holidays.

Sales of passenger vehicles in February 2010 rose to 36,551 units from 33,992 units in the corresponding month last year while that of commercial vehicles rose to 4,103 units from 3,394 units, it said in a statement on Monday.

Sales of passenger vehicles in the first two months of the year increased to 82,524 units from 68,621 units in the corresponding period last year.

Sales of commercial vehicles in the same period went up to 8,752 units from 6,872 units previously.

For the two-month period, the total industry volume rose to 91,568 units from 78,059 units in the same period last year.

MAA said total production of vehicles in February 2010 went down to 40,272 units from 40,632 units in the corresponding month last year.

Production of passenger vehicles in February declined to 36,740 units from 36,985 units in the corresponding month last year while that of commercial vehicles dropped to 3,532 units from 3,647 units.

However, production of passenger vehicles in the two-month period rose to 82,912 units from 69,406 units in the same period last year while that of commercial vehicles went up to 8,656 units from 8,653 units.

Going forward, MAA said that sales volume for March 2010 is expected to be better than February due to seasonal factor.

"This is likely to continue the year-on-year sales volume expansion recorded in the first two months of this year," it said.