Western Australia’s car industry has registered its second straight month of decline for new vehicle sales, according to the latest data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Vehicle sales in the state for July fell 8.1 per cent to 6,966, compared with the same time last year.
The result marked the second straight month of falling vehicle sales, after the previous five months had registered increasing sales.
On an annual basis, vehicle sales were up 2.4 per cent to 57,146 in WA.
The monthly decline was led by a 20.3 per cent drop in passenger vehicle sales, while SUV sales were also down 7 per cent in July.
Nationally, there were 85,551 new vehicle sales in July, down 7.8 per cent over the year. In the 12 months to July, sales totalled 1,187.883 units, down from 1,195,086 units in June, but up 0.6 per cent on a year ago.
“The July 2018 market of 85,551 new vehicle sales is a decrease of 7,203 vehicle sales or -7.8 per cent on July 2017 (92,754) vehicle sales. July 2018 (26) had the same number of selling days as July 2017 and this resulted in a decrease of 277 vehicle sales per day,” CommSec chief eceonomist Craig James said.
“The passenger vehicle market is down by 7,425 vehicle sales (-20.6 per cent) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is down by 354 vehicle sales (1.0 per cent); the light commercial market is up by 19 vehicle sales (0.1 per cent); and the heavy commercial vehicle market is up by 377 vehicle sales (12.7 per cent) versus July 2017.”
