Automotive sales fell 31.2% y-o-y in 1Q2016 to 49,600 vehicles, down from around 72,200 units in the same period last year, according to data from the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC), an industry association. Passenger car sales dropped 31.7% during the quarter, with Al Mal reporting total sales revenue of EGP 6.3 bn. Bus sales declined 23.1% in 1Q2016, while sales of trucks plummeted 34.1%. Fully imported (CBU) vehicles took the brunt of shrinking sales, dropping 33.2%, while locally assembled vehicle sales declined 23.1%. Sales will fall 50% y-o-y by the end of 2016 on the back of the FX crunch, Elsaba Automotive chief Alaa Elsaba tells Al Borsa, calling on the government to swiftly adopt the automotive directive. The so-called auto directive — passed by Cabinet and believed now to be at the presidency for review — would provide domestic assemblers with tax incentives and other incentives to go further up the value chain into manufacturing, creating jobs and sustaining an industry that claims it is threatened by unfair competition from Turkish, Moroccan and European Union imports. (See Transport + Automotive, below, for more on the automotive directive, which HSBC says will benefit the industry, including listed player GB Auto.)