MANILA, Philippines — Motor vehicle sales continued to improve with sales in September posting 8.6 percent increase over the previous month and the decline on a year to date basis has narrowed down to 3.5 percent over the same period last year, a report by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) said.
In the report, CAMPI said that sales in September reached 12,555 units or 8.6 percent up over 11,558 units in August.
For the January-September period, total auto sales hit 105,663 units or 3.5 percent lower than the 109,517 units in the same nine-month period last year.
The decline on a year-to-date basis has been narrowed down to 3.5 percent as against from 4.1 percent decrease in the eight month period this year.
CAMPI attributed the sluggishness in the year to date due to the reduction in the supply of some models.
CAMPI’s original sales forecast this year was placed at 175,000 or 4-5 percent higher than 2010 sales figure.
In May this year, CAMPI mulled the reduction in growth target to flat or between 1 to 2 percent at best following the reduced production of the country’s major car manufacturers due to the disruption in the supply of parts and components as a result of the Japan disasters.
Of the overall sales, the passenger car sales grew by 4.2% with sales of 4,195 units while commercial vehicles contributed an 11% growth with 8,360 units. Overall sales in this segment for the January-September period reached 35,485 units or 2.4 percent down versus 36,339 units in the same period last year.
In the commercial vehicle segment, the highest growth was registered by light commercial vehicles at 26.7%. A combination of factors boosted the monthly sales performance in the various segments such as improvement in supply of some models, fleet deliveries and introduction of new models.
The nine-month sales for the commercial segment posted a 4.1 percent decline to 70,178 units versus 73,178 units in the same period last year.
Of the commercial vehicle categories, the Asian utility vehicles registered a 9.8 percent decline in September over August and 4.7 percent decline on a year to date basis.
The huge decline in AUV sales was attributed to the limited supply of models in this category.
Sales of light commercial vehicles posted a significant 26.7 percent in September over August due to the introduction of new models and consistent high demand for sports utility vehicles.
On a year to date, however, LCV sales posted a negative 4.2 percent.
For light trucks, month on month sales increased by 10.1 percent due to completion of fleet transactions. Year-to-date sales for LCV also increased by 3.5 percent.
Sales of trucks and buses improved by 11.9 percent in September versus August while sales on a year to date basis was up 9 percent due to deliveries and stock availability.
In terms of ranking, sales of industry leader Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. declined by 4.5 percent to 39,421 units from 41,281 units in the same period of 2010.
Source: mb.com.ph
