10 November 2014

INFOGRAPHIC: Car sales accelerate



Auto industry ‘confident’ of hitting 2014 sales target


VEHICLE sales in the Philippines this year are expected to be in line with or even exceed the forecast of 250,000 units, with the domestic auto sector registering one of the strongest growth rates in Southeast Asia, auto industry officials said.

According to the head of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI), carmakers are on track to hit the target, which was revised in July from the earlier forecast of 230,000 units set at the start of the year.

In a text message, the president of CAMPI, lawyer Rommel R. Gutierrez, said the group is “confident that the 250,000-unit target will be met.”

“Our strong efforts to meet the market’s demand and favorable responses to new models have essentially helped in boosting the automotive industry’s confidence of achieving higher sales for the remaining two months [of the year],” Mr. Gutierrez said.

Froilan G. Dytianquin, assistant vice-president for marketing services at Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC), in an e-mail said: “The sales of brand-new vehicles may reach or even surpass the total industry sales target of 250,000 [units] set by CAMPI this year. As Christmas season approaches, we expect this month and December to be equally high as October.”

The statements follow a combined CAMPI and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) report, released on Monday, that puts sales coming from members of the two organizations at 22,278 vehicles in October -- a 32.6% spike from a year earlier. CAMPI called the result “an all-time high sales record” for the month of October.

October’s result is 6.5% more than the groups’ 20,924-unit total in September.

Sales in the first 10 months of the year reached 192,005 vehicles, 29.6% higher than in the same stretch in 2013, CAMPI reported.

The report also showed an increase in deliveries of cars and all types of commercial vehicles -- from Asian Utility Vehicles, to light trucks, and trucks and buses -- from January to October compared against the first 10 months of 2013. Sales of cars totaled 74,397 units, up 50.3% from a year earlier, while commercial vehicles notched 117,608 units, a rise of 19.2%.

Commercial vehicles continued to take up the bulk of the domestic auto market with a 61.25% share even as cars posted stronger growth.

The joint CAMPI and TMA forecast includes sales coming from the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (AVID), which counts Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. as its biggest member.

In its own report issued last month AVID put its tally from January to September at 27,013 cars and commercial vehicles, a 19% jump from a year earlier.

Hyundai models accounted for 17,693 units of AVID’s 2014 result, with the brand selling 2,017 vehicles in September.

AVID and Hyundai have yet to release their October sales reports.

Leading CAMPI’s January-to-October performance is Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) with deliveries of 86,794 vehicles, comprising 45.2% of the group’s total, and an on-year jump of almost 42%. Toyota has topped the industry’s sales charts since 2002.

Mr. Gutierrez, who is also first vice-president at TMP, said “Toyota hopes to finish the year with 100,000 units [sold].”

Coming next after Toyota is MMPC with 41,651 units sold -- an 18.2% rise in the year to date growth. The local unit of Mitsubishi Motors accounted for 21.69% of the market.

Ford Philippines is the third-biggest seller in the industry group as it moved 16,514 vehicles so far this year, 51.8% higher than its year-earlier tally.

Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. is fourth with 11,117 units, down 3%, and Isuzu Philippines Corp. fifth with 11,007 units, up 12.9% hike.

A separate report for the January-to-September period filed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Automotive Federation showed that the Philippine automotive sector posted the third-best performance in the region with a 29.2% gain, following Singapore, where sales rose 34.2% and Vietnam, which posted a 30.5% rise.

Traditionally robust car-producing markets Malaysia and Indonesia notched up modest gains -- 0.9% and 2.7%, respectively -- while Thailand, which in 2013 had the biggest auto market with slightly over a million units sold, saw a 37.3% dip in the first nine months of 2014.

Car sales in the ASEAN region during the same period stood at 2,380,683 units, 10.8% less than in 2013.

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