Gauteng, South Africa -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/04/2013 -- WesBank are leaders in vehicle and asset finance and their reputation for providing tailor-made financial solutions is backed by over 40 years of experience. Find out more about the strong show of growth in new vehicle sales in August 2012 with commentary by Chris De Kock, Executive Head of Sales and Marketing at WesBank.
New vehicle sales continued to show strong growth in August 2012, according to figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), which revealed year-on-year total industry growth of 9.40%.
According to Chris De Kock, Executive Head of Sales and Marketing at WesBank, South Africa’s leading moveable asset-based financial solutions provider, growth so far this year has been very strong but is now showing signs of slowing down. “The base effect of the strong growth achieved in 2011 is starting to come through in the numbers and while growth is still strong, we do expect this to moderate in the coming months.”
“The 50 basis point reduction in interest rates at the end of July also had a positive impact on consumer demand for new vehicles in August; however, we believe we have now seen the last of this and there will be limited benefit on vehicle sales going forward.”
He says strong consumer demand helped the year-to-date growth remain in double digits, at 11.30% for the 8 months to August. “Clearly it remains an incredible buyers’ market for new vehicles, which is being driven by the muted CPI on vehicles combined with the 40-year low interest rate environment. The shift of demand from used to new vehicles is also fuelling this growth, as customers continue to see limited benefit in used due to a narrow price gap between the two.”
This trend is also reflected in WesBank’s book data, which recorded year-on-year growth of 8% in credit applications in August, as well as the second highest number of monthly applications in the last seven years. “Our data also shows that the transaction value has increased slightly, suggesting that consumers are not migrating to cheaper cars by buying down in their choice of vehicle.”
De Kock notes that while 2012 has so far seen very strong growth in new vehicle sales, this will become harder to achieve going forward, given the strong comparative figures recorded in the second half of last year and the deteriorating economic environment.”
“In spite of this, sales should still end in the mid-single digit growth range for 2012,” 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.