Gauteng, South Africa -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/01/2013 -- WesBank is a South African finance company that has been providing movable-asset finance solutions for more than 40 years. Chris De Kock, Executive Head of Sales and Marketing for WesBank provides insight on slower September 2012 vehicle sales.
The growth in new vehicle sales in South Africa slowed sharply in September 2012, with figures released on 2 October 2012 by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) which showed a 1.4% increase in total industry vehicles sales year-on-year in September 2012.
According to Chris De Kock, Executive Head of Sales and Marketing at WesBank, South Africa’s leading asset-based financial solutions provider, this slowdown is not surprising. “New vehicle sales were still very strong in September but these figures are a clear indicator that the base effect of strong growth in the latter half of last year has finally started to catch up with the market.”
He notes that the slowdown is largely due to the fact that September was a short month in terms of trading days, with 19 working days in the month compared with 21 a year ago and 23 the previous month.
De Kock says that according to WesBank book data, September was the first month in more than three years that application growth dropped on a year-on-year basis. “This is a leading indicator of future growth and indicates that we are likely to see continued moderation through the final months of the year.”
However, he says September was also the strongest month recorded on an application per day basis, with the number of applications per day reaching a record 5 225 in the month compared with 4 754 a year earlier and 4 907 in September last year.
“There is clearly still a lot of activity and demand in the new vehicle market, driven by low inflation on vehicles together with the 40-year low interest rate environment. As such, we are not seeing demand curtailing but rather the base effect is simply becoming that much harder to beat.”
“As a result, we would expect further flat growth in the coming months leading to single digit growth for the year as a whole, in line with our earlier prediction,” concludes De Kock.
About Wesbank
WesBank has over 40 years of experience in asset and vehicle finance. As a leading asset-based finance provider in South Africa, we finance new and used vehicles for personal use, both privately and through dealerships, as well as leisure vehicles, and also offer expert advice and professional service to our clients.
Our other main focus is providing quality asset finance and fleet management solutions for a number of market sectors. WesBank’s asset finance services cover aviation finance, agri finance, commercial vehicle finance, company vehicles, plant equipment, office equipment, public sector finance and franchise finance. In addition, we offer personal insurance, vehicle insurance, personal loans as well as business insurance, and we are perfectly placed to structure a finance deal to suit your needs.
WesBank is a division of FirstRand Bank Limited, which in turn, is part of the FirstRand Group. FirstRand is South Africa's most innovative Bank Assurance Group with interests in Retail and Merchant Banking, Life Assurance, Financial Planning and Medical Schemes.