Overall light duty vehicle sales for May in Canada “moved down modestly, reflecting the ongoing challenges with vehicle supply arising from the 11 March disaster in Japan, the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada (AIAMC) said.
May’s sales were down 3.8% year on year to 149,034. For AIAMC members, aka as import brands, sales “were reflective of the Japanese supply challenges” with volume off 6.9% to 76,315 compared to last May.
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For the first time in a number of months overall truck sales declined, down 1.4% in May to 79,632. The truck share of the overall market was 53.4%, increasing slightly over April’s share (52.7%) and last May’s share (52.1%) despite sustained higher petrol prices. AIAMC members’ truck sales were down 1.8% to 27,147. Trucks represented a 35.5% share of total AIAMC member sales, slightly higher than the 33.7% share of sales last May.
“May sales are at least partially reflective of the anomaly of supply issues for the AIAMC’s Japanese member companies arising from the 11 March natural disasters in Japan. Only one Japanese member, Subaru, posted a sales increase this month,” said group president David Adams. “Overall sales volumes are 20,000 units lower that the average May sales volumes for the last five years – which is somewhat disconcerting – but the impact of the Japanese crisis was not unexpected.”
Ten memeber companies reported sales growth last month with a number posting record sales for May. AIAMC members’ market share for May was 51.2%, down from 52.9% a year ago.
