In Morocco, despite two years of “crisis” due to the pandemic, car sales continued on a positive trend with an increase of 12.64% at the end of September compared to 2019, indicates Aivam. But, professionals fear a stock shortage. Shortage of electronic chips and shutdowns of production plants around the world are forcing them.
After a horribilis year 2020, during which the sector achieved one which fell by 20% in deliveries with 133,308 against 165,918 registrations in 2019, the automobile has regained its breath, but it seems that not for long.
Indeed, counting on 131,637 units marketed at the end of September, according to the latest statistics from the Association of Vehicle Importers in Morocco (Aivam), car sales continue to progress defying the repercussions of the health crisis.
This brilliant performance is, however, far from reassuring professionals who foresee difficult months because of the shortage of electronic chips which paralyzes factories all over the world.
At the time when Opel, Volkswagen and Ford have decided to close production sites in Germany for several weeks. Stellantis, the group with 14 automobile brands, declared a closure of a plant of its Opel subsidiary in Eisenach, Germany “until early 2022”. The next day, it was the turn of the American automaker General Motors (GM) to announce the suspension of production at several North American factories and the extension of the shutdowns of some others.
Thus, this specter which hangs over the sector all over the world raises fears of a problem of stock availability, or even a total disruption of supply for certain models.
Despite gloomy prospects and a past crisis, which is not without impact on purchasing power, sales of cars, whether passenger cars (PCs) or light commercial vehicles (LCVs) have not declined. At least for now.
This 12.64% increase is mainly attributed to the increase in PC sales of 10.77% compared to 2019.
While registrations of these reached 115,611 at the end of September, sales of LCVs grew by 28.26% reaching 16,026 units delivered.
However, the problem of stock availability is starting to be felt.
Achieving double-digit growth since the start of the current financial year, registrations amounting to 13,255 units rose only 3.17% during the month of September.
In terms of ranking by brand, the Renault group remains at the top of the podium with the Dacia which, with 32,747 units sold, accounts for 28.33% of passenger car sales, up 4.61% compared to September 2019.
Kia achieves the best performance with a 177.39% increase in deliveries to 3,140. Opel, for its part, counted on 5,427 registrations up 124.16%.
Skoda saw its deliveries increase by 50.06% to 3,603 while Hyundai achieved a good score with 9,493 registrations up 30.96%.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen and Fiat saw their sales plummet. With 5,198 units sold, the German brand fell by 21.08% and with 3,478 units sold, the Italian brand fell by 18.59%.
As for luxury cars, Audi is performing with an increase of 101.33%, to 2,869 deliveries. BMW occupies the second step of the podium with 2,457 units delivered, an increase of 28.64%. Next comes the Mercedes with a slight drop in sales of 1.25% (1,890 registrations).
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