KUALA LUMPUR (May 6): Proton Holdings Bhd faced a challenging April, as chip supply issues continued to be a dampener on the number of units sold, with the carmaker seeing a 32.2% month-on-month decline in monthly sales to 8,839 units, although it is expecting a turnaround in the coming months.

Year-on-year, sales for the month were down 41.1%. Its market share for April was estimated at 15.6%, while year-to-date market share stood at 17%, ranking the company second in terms of cumulative sales and market share.

Despite the overall decline, it said Proton models still topped three market segments — the Proton X50, X70 and Exora remained at the top of the B-SUV, C-SUV and C-MPV segments with sales of 1,554 units, 1,530 units and 301 units respectively.

The best-selling model in April was the Proton Saga with 4,579 units sold, leading to a year-to-date total of 14,028 units in its final full month of sales before the launch of the 2022 Proton Saga.

Proton Edar chief executive officer Roslan Abdullah said Malaysia’s automotive market continues to show strong growth potential in 2022, after two years of pandemic-affected sales, based on the long waiting list for new car deliveries.

“Thankfully for our customers, we have secured our supply of chips for May and June and are projecting a quick turnaround in the coming months.

“The situation is still uncertain for the rest of the year and the global car industry is under pressure from rising costs, but the company is working on countermeasures against these issues to ensure our customers get the best products and value in Malaysia and abroad,” he said in a statement on Friday (May 6).

Export sales for April stood at 456 units, amid parts supply issues, bringing the year-to-date export sales to 1,573 units, up 109.7% versus the first four months of 2021.

Pakistan was its biggest export market with 1,050 units sold during the period, followed by Egypt and Brunei with 172 and 138 units respectively.