Contact: Matt Hobbs, MTAA CEO
Email: matt.hobbs@mtaa.com.au
Tel: 03 9829 1250
Mobile: 0419 608 845
Postal: 650 Victoria Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051
The passenger car rental and hiring industry suffered in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. Consumer and Business confidence was low so many people looked for ways to save money so avoided leasing and hiring vehicles, also foreign tourist numbers were down reducing the demand for hire cars.
In recent years, Australian consumers have shown a tendency to purchase new cars, which means that the average age of cars on the road is getting younger. This is not good news for the dismantling and used parts wholesale industry as they rely on used cars to provide replacement parts and repairs. Also, newer cars are likely to come with crash-avoidance technology which lessens the need for smash repairs and replacement parts. However, counter balancing the loss of this revenue is the high demand for scrap metal which is acquired as purchasers of new cars look to get rid of their old cars.
Many motorcycles are purchased for recreational purposes, therefore sales of motorcycles are very responsive to economic conditions. In figure 2, the rate of revenue growth declines sharply in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), and it is not until 2010-11 that the industry sees a return to positive growth. The decline in growth was somewhat off-set by people purchasing motorcycles and scooters as a cheaper form of transport amongst rising fuel prices. The agricultural sector has also seen an increased demand for All-Terrain Vehicles.
The structure of the fuel retailing industry has changed markedly over the past 10 years. Many oil companies have pulled out of the industry opting to pursue more profitable streams of revenue, and have been replaced by supermarket chains like Coles, Woolworths and Seven-Eleven. The supermarket chains can use fuel outlets as an extension of their regular businesses selling supermarket goods and petrol at discounted prices with docket vouchers.
Tyres are an essential part of the automotive industry and therefore, there will always be a market for them. The industry went into negative growth during the Global Financial crisis as consumers delayed spending but the need for tyres soon returned to strong positive growth following pent-up demand.