Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Import and sales of reconditioned cars, which make more than 80 per cent of the country’s privately-owned automobiles, have declined by more than 50 per cent in the past three months, dealers said.

Procurement data of used cars from Japan in the first month of the current fiscal year showed that the import was the lowest compared to similar period of the past three years, they added.

Only 1,468 units of used cars had been shipped from Japan to Bangladesh in July, 2010, the New Age, a local newspaper, reported quoting sources at the Japan Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Quoting Japanese official car export data, the chamber said imports of Japanese used cars by Bangladesh were recorded at 2,581 in July, 2009, some 1,635 units in July, 2008, while it was 1,731 in the same month of 2007 and 1,160 in 2006.
 
“Car sales have dropped by at least 50 per cent in almost every showroom in the past three months,” Habibullah Don, President of the Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicle Importer and Dealers Association, was quoted by the newspaper, as saying.

Abdul Haque, managing director of one of the largest car showrooms, Haq’a Bay, said opening letters of credit (LCs) for car imports by different banks indicate drastic decline in procurements of used cars by local importers.

“Ever worsening traffic congestions in city roads has also been injuring the desires of city dwellers to own a car,” Mr.Haque, also a director of the country’s apex trade body, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, pointed out as another major reason for the declining sales and imports of cars.

BBN/SI/AD-28Sept10-10:29 am (BST)