A relentless economic crisis has ravaged the Pakistani car industry in the past few months, stunting various operations including vehicle sales and production.
In a recent notification, Hinopak Motors Limited informed the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) that it will shut down its manufacturing plant for 12 days. The shutdown will continue from March 24 till April 4.
The notification is as follows:
Unfortunately, the demand for commercial vehicles had already dampened as industrialists lament the losses in their productions and other operations. They have appealed to the government to stay afloat.
Foreign exchange shortages and component supply problems are suffocating the automobile industry. Car sales slumped once again last month due to diminished production and demand.
The latest data from Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) suggests that carmakers (association members only) collectively sold just 5,762 vehicles in February 2023, witnessing a month-over-month (MoM) decrease of 47%, but a year-over-year (YoY) decrease of 73%.
Car financing has also dropped for the 8th consecutive month due to diminished sales. Experts reckon that the situation will remain bleak for the foreseeable future.
They are not makers or manufacturers, they are hobbyists. They have been here for decades and still no vertical integration. They just weld together imported parts like a kid playing with blocks.
If they were a serious business, they would have based production directly from bare metal and setup a local materials departments which would have automatically created market and jobs for various fields.
It is a wakeup call to all business to actually become indigenous and self sufficient. Its not just dollar problem. US put sanctions on Huawei just out of jealousy because Huawei was big success while using some technology US made so US took unfair advantage.
So everything should be local and original.