New vehicle sales in Malaysia increased by almost 5% to 44,695 units in June 2020 from weak year earlier sales of 42,586 units, based on registration data released by the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA), as the government continued to ease restrictions put in place under its first Movement Control Order (MCO) in March to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Compared with the previous month's depressed volume, new vehicle registrations increased by almost 92% as the domestic economy continued to normalise after more than two months of shutdown. The government also scrapped the sales tax on vehicles in June until the end of the year to help lift sales, which resulted in broad based price cuts by dealers.
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GDP was expected to have declined sharply in the second quarter, after growing by 0.7% in the first quarter and by 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Domestic activity was curtailed severely by the lockdown while export demand has also weakened significantly this year.
New vehicle registrations in the first half of 2020 were down by just over 41% at 174,675 units from 296,317 units in the same period of last year, with passenger vehicle sales also down by 41.3% at 158,876 units while commercial vehicle sales fell by almost 38% to 15,799 units from 25,456 units.
MAA president Datuk Aishah Ahmad at the monthly press conference told reporters "the implementation of the MCO between mid March until mid May 2020 severely affected vehicle sales in this period, with auto companies unable to operate their businesses", adding "even before the COVID crisis vehicle manufacturers were already facing headwinds after the Customs Department suddenly changed the open market value calculation method for vehicles".
The moderate year on year sales increase in June came against very weak year earlier sales when the market shut down for part of that month due to the annual Hari Raya holidays.
Ahmad pointed out "demand for new vehicles remains sluggish due to economic uncertainty and weak consumer confidence"
Separately, the second national car company Perodua said it sold 21,250 vehicles in June, almost three times May level, although first half sales were down by over 39% year on year at 74,000 units.
Meanwhile, Proton reported a 26% year on year sales increase to 9,623 units in June and a 69% increase compared with May.
