Automobile sales soared to an all-time high of 0.81 million tonnes in July 2021, up 12.5% year over year (YoY) and 4% month over month (MoM).
Overall, oil industry sales increased by 16 percent year over year to 1.94 million tonnes in July, up from 1.66 million tonnes the previous month.
Sales of high-speed diesel (HSD) increased by 7% to 0.72 million tonnes in July 2021, up from 0.68 million tonnes in July 2020. When compared to July 2021, HSD sales fell by 7% to 0.78 million tonnes in June 2021.
According to Samiullah Tariq, Head of Research at Pak Kuwait Investment, a substantial decline in smuggling of Iranian petrol has raised demand for local petrol, either due to troubles in Iran or strong border surveillance by the Pakistani government.
Another reason for increased gasoline sales, he claimed, was that many individuals chose to travel to the northern territories in July. He attributed the increase in FO sales to LNG difficulties, which he said had kept demand for the fuel high.
Tahir Abbas, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited (AHL), said that one of the main reasons for booming petrol sales in July was increased car sales, followed by increased road travel to northern areas.
“By July 2021, many FO-based power plants had resumed operations. The suspension of RLNG deliveries in the first week of July also boosted FO sales for power generation,” he added.
As to PAMA data, car sales had surged by 56.7pc in FY21 to 151,182 units from 96,455 units in FY20. Cut in the price of vehicles due to cutting of taxes and customs by the government has also spurred additional auto demand followed by record high auto-financing of Rs308 billion as of June 2021 thanks to low interest rates.
