The key will be whether APE outperformed other dealers (and the...

The key will be whether APE outperformed other dealers (and the margins enjoyed on new, and used, car and other vehicle sales) but this June 2021 sales figure on the face of it is not marvellous.

However, given more than 560000 vehicles were sold in the first six months of the year, overall for that longer period, the picture is better.

This is from 'Wheels' magazine:

"Australia’s new-car market has experienced its first stumble of the year after registering its second-worst June result since 2011.

A total of 110,664 vehicles were sold last month, according to the latest industry figures released today. While it represents the highest monthly sales of 2021 so far, June is the first month of the year to post negligible growth – less than 0.5 per cent compared with June 2020.

June is traditionally the strongest sales month owing to end of financial year deals and business practices, but global semi-conductor shortages have been playing havoc with supply.

The latest round of state lockdowns wouldn’t have helped, even if the worst-affected state in June – New South Wales – was down less than one per cent.

Industry body the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) played down the parts shortage and Covid issues, adopting an optimistic outlook and remaining confident the market would surpass one million sales in 2021.

“In spite of some states being forced into Covid-19 lockdowns towards the end of June, the acquisition of a new vehicle remains a popular option for buyers across all market segments,” said FCAI chief executive Tony Weber.

“The delivery challenges caused by microprocessor shortages and bottlenecks in the supply chain are yet to be fully resolved, however all parties are continuing to find ways to meet the strong demand for customers across all sectors.

“Right now, we would expect customer demand across all segments to remain strong for the second half of 2021 which has the market on track to return to a result in excess of one million vehicles.”

Last month’s result was just 430 vehicles above June 2020, which was affected by the developing Covid-19 crisis. Both months are well below results achieved in Junes going back to 2012 (see table further below).

June’s result has dropped the market’s year-to-date growth from its May high of 38 per cent to 28 per cent.

With 567,468 total year-to-date sales, the market is more than halfway to a million units at the halfway stage of 2021..."