Enab Baladi – Lama Diab
Car prices in Syria have seen a significant decrease due to increased imports and the lack of customs restrictions, which has led to a large influx into the local market, affecting the overall market activity.
Customers complain that most of the imported cars are not new and have defects, while dealers say that sales have dropped significantly over the past few weeks, with excessive supply facing weak demand.
Significant decline
Car prices have dropped by about 75% compared to their prices before the fall of the Assad regime, according to a car dealer in Damascus, Ammar al-Masri.
The dealer pointed out to Enab Baladi that a 2011 model Hyundai Sonata, before the regime fell, was priced between 600 to 700 million Syrian pounds, which is approximately $40,000 USD. Today, it can be purchased for $10,000 USD. A Kia Rio that previously cost 300 million pounds is now priced at 60 million pounds. Prices vary based on the year of manufacture and what is termed in the market as “car cleanliness,” i.e., mileage, whether it has replacement parts, or if the car was involved in an accident.
Currently, 80% of the cars being imported are used, and there are new cars, but their prices are very high, according to dealer al-Masri. He noted that the car market was very active from the fall of the regime until March but has witnessed stagnation for about a month and a half (around mid-April) due to the abundance of cars in the face of weak customer demand.
He indicated that prices for older Korean or Chinese cars today start from $1,500 to $6,000, while the price for newly imported cars is not less than $8,000.
Al-Masri added that someone who had $10,000 USD before the fall of the regime could buy a car from the 1990s, but now with the same amount, they can purchase a 2011 model, stating, “Not all citizens can afford to buy a car, even if prices have fallen.”
A non-strategic consumer product
Since the Syrian government announced the opening of car imports with few restrictions, except for the manufacturing age requirement, the markets have seen an unprecedented influx in the car sector, transforming from severe scarcity to surplus within a few weeks, according to economic researcher Mohammed al-Salloum, to Enab Baladi.
He added that what some consider a market improvement is, from an economic perspective, a form of excessive and unproductive consumer spending that may deepen the crisis rather than alleviate it.
He estimated that the value of imported cars to Syria over the past few months stands at about $1.5 billion, a significant figure considering that the state’s budget for the same year does not exceed $3.9 billion. He added, “The contradiction becomes clear when realizing that this amount of money has gone to a purely consumer market at a time when the Syrian economy is suffering from severe stagnation and weak productivity.”
“We are not talking about a productive sector or infrastructure, but rather about a non-strategic consumer good, a large part of which is old manufacturing years, and the entry of these cars into the market will increase burdens regarding fuel, maintenance, and spare parts,” according to al-Salloum.
Al-Salloum clarified that, in terms of pricing, it is natural for the prices of old and stored cars in the market to collapse after this unregulated openness and the entry of a large number of vehicles, without any customs duties or luxury taxes, creating a sharp price difference and resulting in cars being a commodity subject to price speculation not based on actual costs, but rather on a regulatory gap between different areas of influence.
Economic impact
Regarding the economic impact, researcher al-Salloum believes that such a large-scale import has led to a sudden increase in demand for foreign currency, which will inevitably be reflected in the exchange rate of the Syrian pound, negatively affecting purchasing power, especially in the food and medicine sectors, which also rely on imports. This impact is apparent in the short term, while the medium-term effect will lead the market into a double inflation cycle due to the increase in supply of a non-productive commodity and rising operating costs associated with it, amid a lack of suitable infrastructure.
For instance, this amount could have been directed towards creating medium-cost projects with a direct effect on people’s lives, such as establishing small industrial cities in provinces lacking production infrastructure, or supporting agricultural and manufacturing value chains in rural areas to provide job opportunities and achieve partial self-sufficiency in certain essential goods. He pointed out that “these projects would be sufficient to circulate money within the Syrian economy instead of injecting it into imported consumer goods and increasing fuel and maintenance bills amid fuel shortages.”
Al-Salloum indicated that the policy of unregulated openness to car imports in a country suffering from a decline in its production resources is merely a response to market demand without an economic vision. What is required today is not to curb the market but to realign investment toward projects that generate real value and alleviate the continuous depletion of foreign reserves while maintaining a minimum balance in the trade balance.
Car ferries in Tartus and Latakia
On May 18, the Tartus governorate announced the arrival of a second ship loaded with 1,800 cars from Korea to the port.
It considered that this comes as part of “accelerated steps to drive economic momentum after the fall of the oppressive regime.”
The governorate announced on April 28 the arrival of the first car ferry post-regime, which carried about 3,200 cars to the port of Tartus.
At that time, the governorate deemed the arrival of the ship as “an important indicator of the launch of a recovery phase in commercial activity and a return to vitality in Syrian ports after years of stagnation and decline.”
Meanwhile, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the first commercial transport ship carrying cars arrived at the port of Latakia on January 26, as the Syrian Ministry of Transport permitted the import of cars into Syria on the condition that no more than 15 years have passed since their manufacture.
The decision faced significant criticism since then, with some experts arguing that it would affect car prices and cause losses to their owners, in addition to depleting foreign currency resources on non-essential materials.
Arrival of the first car ship at the Tartus Port – April 28, 2025 (General Authority for Maritime and Sea Ports)
Temporary import facilitation
Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr stated that the ministry is in the process of implementing measures aimed at reorganizing the import of cars into Syria, after the market was flooded with new cars following the opening of imports a few months ago.
He added that following the opening of imports, a large number of new cars entered to compensate for the shortage in the local market, as reported by SANA on May 7.
The minister confirmed that the facilitation measures provided for car entry, including streamlining procedures at crossings and reducing customs fees, have led to the flooding of the local market with new cars. However, this situation is temporary and lacks sustainable factors, according to his statement.
Syrian local market is flooded with imported cars Enab Baladi.
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