Qatar’s automobile sector made a remarkable growth in January 2019 showing its resilience to the impact of global economic challenges and ongoing unjust blockade. The sales of new vehicles, including private cars, heavy equipment and trailers witnessed a good growth in the first month of the new year compared to December 2018.
Some 5,598 new vehicles were registered in January 2019 against 5,263 in the previous month (December 2018), showing a monthly growth of 6.4 percent, according to the latest official data released by the Ministry of Development, Planning and Statistics.
Among all categories, sales of private vehicles such as cars, SUVs and multi-utility vehicles increased to 3,925, accounting for 70 percent of the total new registrations, which recorded 7.9 percent growth compared to 3,636 units registered (sold) in December last year.
The sales of new trailers recorded an incredible triple-digit growth in January with the total number of new registrations reaching at 69, witnessing a sharp jump of 102.9 percent compared to 34 new trailers registered in December 2018. And the registration of vehicles classified in the ‘Others’ category saw a record growth of 345.5 percent in January 2019 against last December.
While the sales of vehicles used for “private transport” such as big and min-buses, and vehicles for commercial services accounted for 20 percent of the total new registrations in January, with the total number reaching at 1,111, up 16.5 percent compared to 954 in December last year.
Even when compared on yearly basis, the sales of ‘private vehicles’ have recorded a marginal growth of 0.2 percent in January 2019 compared to 3,919 in the same month last year. However, the total new registration of vehicles (all categories combined) in January declined by 10.9 percent (year-on-year) against 6,283 in the corresponding month last year (January 2018).
Analysts say that the year-on-year fall is understandable due to the sharp fall in the sales of commercial and transport vehicles, including trailers, heavy equipment and others their demand is plummeting with most of the big ticket infrastructure projects such as metro rail and others are at the verge of completion.
