Despite energy crisis and other related challenges, the automobile industry of the country performed well as its production increased during the fiscal year 2011-12 as compared to the previous year. Among the automobile sector, the production of jeeps and cars increased by 14.72 percent during the fiscal year (2011-12) as compared to the same period of previous year, according to the official data. The overall production of jeeps and cars was recorded at 154,706 units during July-June (2011-12) against the production of 134,855 units during July- June (2010-11), data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics revealed. During the period under review, the production of Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) also increased by 9.34 percent by going up from 19,142 units during 2010- 11 to 20,929 units during 2011-12. Production of busses also increased from 490 units to 568 units, showing growth of 15.92 percent. However, the output of Trucks and Tractors decreased by 7.56 percent and 32.04 percent respectively. The production of trucks decreased from 2,810 units in 2010-11 to 2,597 units in 2011-12 while the production of tractors declined from 70,855 units to 48,152 units. The production of motorcycles increased by 0.43 percent by growing from 1,628,457 units in 2010-11 to 1,645,520 units in 2011-12, the data revealed. Meanwhile, during the month of June 2012, the production of cars and jeeps surged by 47.29 percent as it jumped from the output of 10,743 units in June 2011 to 15,823 units in June 2012. The production of LCV’s increased by 10.86 percent to reach 1,970 units during June 2012 as compared to the production of 1,777 units in June 2011. Production of busses, trucks and tractors increased by 46.67 percent, 140.20 percent and 21 percent respectively during June 2012 over the same month of last year. However, the production of motorcycles witnessed 10.20 negative growth by falling from the production of 149,265 units in 2011 to 134,026 units in 2012, the data revealed. It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s large scale manufacturing (LSM) witnessed growth of 1.17 percent during the financial year 2011-12 as compared to the growth of last fiscal year. Growth of 0.75 percent was witnessed in the indices of Provincial Board of Statistics that increased from 124.83 in 2010-11 to 128.63 during the year under review. Similarly, the indices of Ministry of Industries and Production increased from 109.87 points to 111.04 points, showing an increase of 0.74 percent. However, the indices of OCAC witnessed negative growth of 0.32 percent as it declined from 83.27 points to 78.60 points.
