Car production up 1.28pc to 0.156mn units in 8 months

ISLAMABAD: The production of cars and jeeps witnessed 1.28 percent increase during the first eight months of the fiscal year 2018-19 against the output of the same period of last fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

As many as 156,720 jeeps and cars were manufactured during July-February (2018-19) against the production of 154.732 units during July- February (2017-18), showing growth of 1.28 percent.

However, the production of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) witnessed decrease of 12.78 percent in production during the period under review by going down from 19,907 units last year to 17,363 LCVs during 2018-19.

The production of motorcycles during the period under review also decreased by 10.01 percent by declining from the output of 1,857,210 units last year to 1,671,346 units during 2018-19.

The production of trucks also decreased from 6,081 units last year to 4,679 units, showing decline of 23.06 percent while the production of tractors decreased by 30.05 percent, from 4,5576 units to 31,879  units.

The production of buses during the period under review however witnessed positive growth of 23.61 percent by going up from the output of 487 units to 602 units.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the production of jeeps and cars decreased by 1.98 percent during the month of February 2019 against the output of February  2018.

Pakistan manufactured 18,206 jeeps and cars during February 2019 against the production of 18,573 units during February 2018, the PBS data revealed.

The production of motorcycles decreased by 14.80 percent from the output of 217,838 units to 185,588  units while the production LCVs also decreased by 22.36 percent, from 2,321 units to 1,802 units.

The production of tractors also witnessed negative growth of 35.27 percent by declining from 6,543 units in February 2018 to 4,235 units in February 2019; the production of trucks decreased by 39.69 percent from the output of 703 units to 424  units in February 2019 whereas the production of buses decreased by 50 percent from 52 units to 26 units.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) production has witnessed a decline of 1.72 percent during first eight months of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

LSMI Quantum Index Number (QIM) was recorded at 143.25 points during July-February (2018-19) against 145.76 points during July-February (2017-18), showing a negative growth of 1.72 percent, according to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

The highest decrease of 1.63 percent was witnessed in the indices monitored by Ministry of Industries, followed by 0.34 percent negative growth in the products monitored by the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC), however the indices monitored by Provincial Board of Statistics witnessed positive growth of 0.25 percent.

On year-on-year basis, the industrial growth also decreased by 1.49 percent in February 2019 as compared to same month of last year, whereas month-on-month basis, the industrial growth witnessed decrease of 5.11 percent in February 2019 when compared to growth during January 2018, the PBS data revealed.