JEDDAH, 20 January 2006 — The sales of US car giant General Motors have increased sharply in the Middle East region in 2005. GM reported this week an increase of 28 percent in its sales in the Middle East over the last year.
The company sold 113,574 units in the Middle East in 2005 compared to 88,000 the previous year. GM surpassed 100,000 unit sales for the first time at the end of December. December marks the 26th consecutive month of record sales growth, led by its popular Chevrolet brand portfolio.
Maureen Kempston Darkes, GM vice president and president of GM Latin America, Africa and Middle East (LAAM), said that her regions benefited from the variety in GM’s global product portfolio.
“Chevrolet vehicles sourced from GM’s Korean operations, like the Aveo, Optra, Epica, Spark and Vivant, grew 83 percent in 2005,” said Darkes. GM sold 71,422 units in Saudi Arabia in 2005. The company sold 45,414 of Chevrolet brands compared to 24,627 GMC vehicles. This reflects a 52-percent increase in Chevrolet sales and a 70-percent increase in the sales of GMC. Most of the Chevrolet sales in the Kingdom came from its new brands Aveo and Epica.
The company reported that its Aveo sales for the year 2005 grew by 84 percent while Epica growth was 39 percent. GM sold 11,605 Aveo units and 8,263 units of Epica in 2005. Cadillac and Hummer sales in Saudi Arabia for 2005 amounted to 1,317 units signaling a 15-percent increase from last year. In 2005, GM’s overall sales of Cadillac and Hummer units grew by 31 percent to 3,513 units with 37 percent of those sold in Saudi Arabia.
GM sales in other Middle East markets were also impressive for the year. The company sold 17,484 units in Kuwait and 9,859 units in the United Arab Emirates. GM sales in Kuwait increased in 2005 by 31 percent over the previous year while its sales in the UAE increased by 60 percent. GM’s highest increase in sales in terms of percentage in the Middle East was in Qatar in which company sales increased by 108 percent, or 3,590 units. The company sales in Oman and Bahrain both grew by 44 percent. In the Levant area (Syria, Jordan and Lebanon) the company’s sales grew by 51 percent. GM sold 1,628 units in Oman, 1,929 units in Bahrain and 4,913 in the Levant area.
GM has invested $8.4 million in training and development in the Middle East since 2001, and in 2005 the company began registering Saudi students in its technical training institute in Riyadh. The company also participated in over 70 joint-enforcement raids with Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabian and UAE authorities in 2005, seizing seven million fake parts and packaged items with a total value of $167 million.
Despite its continuous success in the Middle East for the last three years, GM is struggling in its global competition. The company reported a loss of $4 billion in 2005 as it contends with high staff costs, falling market share and a slump in SUV sales.
Experts believed that the high fuel costs in the United States is the major reason for the decline in SUV sales. GM has had an over reliance in the sale of SUVs in recent years. GM announced recently that it would cut 30,000 jobs and to close 12 North American plants. The company’s problems increased in 2005 after the collapse of the US spare-parts giant, Delphi, the company in which GM has a big stake