CAIRO, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian automobile sales have seen declining amid the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, said Osama Aboul-Magd, head of the Egyptian Automotive Dealers Association (EADA).
"People are worried because of the pandemic. They focus more on buying food stuff, sanitizers and protective medical products to avoid infections," Aboul-Magd said.
The recent anti-COVID-19 measures, including a partial curfew, have also led to dropping in sales in the Egyptian market, he added.
"The association has also taken preventive measures to curb the spread of the virus such as asking car dealers to use 50 percent of the staff and giving the other 50 percent paid vacations," the head of the EADA said.
Aboul-Magd noted that Egypt has 170 auto companies operating on market, including 19 companies that manufacture and assemble cars of all kinds.
Speaking about the Chinese cars, Aboul-Magd said Chinese automobiles are very popular in the Egyptian market.
"Chinese cars are competing with famous brands because of their good quality and reasonable prices ... this is what customers search for everywhere," he stressed.
According to Egypt's Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC), 13,000 Chinese cars were sold in Egypt from January to November 2019, up by 79 from a year earlier.
A total of 173,812 cars were sold in Egypt during the same period in 2019, according to AMIC report.
Aboul-Magd hoped that the Chinese factories will resume production soon so as to help reboot the global auto production.
