Passenger car sales rose more than 20 % y-o-y in February, according to industry figures from the Automotive Information Council (AMIC), which showed that around 19.7k cars were sold during the month, up from 16.3k in February last year.

The breakdown:

• Total auto sales rose: Overall, the auto industry sold 25.6k vehicles during the month, up 15% from last year.
• Truck sales were also up: Truck sales rose more than 11% y-o-y to nearly 4.3k.
• Bus sales extended their drop: Some 1.6k buses were sold in February, down nearly 20% y-o-y.

February sales extended a run of growth from last year, despite industry insiders telling us they expect a hit from shortages of components, rising inflation, and disruption to local production. Last year saw the sector shrug off the global chip shortage as strong demand pushed sales to their highest levels since the EGP float in 2016.

Give it a month, though: The impact of the war in Ukraine on the industry — including soaring commodity prices, further supply disruptions and the EGP devaluation — won’t begin to be felt properly until March.

Car prices were rising — until the gov’t imposed caps: As of last week, car dealers are not able to hike prices above the price set by the official seller. Distributorships that sell at higher rates will face fines of up to EGP 2 mn. Many dealers have been hiking car prices, or refusing to sell at all, since the EGP devaluation. It’s not clear how long the price freeze will last.

AMIC data is self-reported by member distributors, who include the majority of (but not all) industry participants.