Imported vehicles sales up 14% in January-November

MANILA, Philippines - Vehicle importers reported a 14-percent growth in sales in the January to November period from last year due to strong demand for passenger cars (PC) and light commercial vehicles (LCV).

The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors, Inc. (AVID) said in a statement yesterday it sold 26,272 units in the 11-month period, higher than the 23,012 units sold in the comparable period last year.

The AVID said the growth in sales was achieved amid an increase in consumers’ purchase of PCs.

“The PC segment lifted overall sales by 21 percent to 15,320 units sold versus 12,660 units in the prior year,” the group said.

LCV sales for the 11-month period also went up by six percent to 10,952 units from last year.

The group saw higher sales for the period given the sustained positive sales performance of the British United Automobiles, Inc., which distributes the Mini Cooper, and The Covenant Car Co., Inc., which sells Chevrolet cars, posting  growth of 28  percent and 23 percent, respectively.

Also contributing to AVID’s higher sales was the local distributor of Hyundai vehicles, Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc.,  which saw its sales climb by eight percent in the 11-month period from last year.

While AVID posted higher year-on-year sales in the January to November period, the group’s sales for the month of November alone declined 15 percent to 2,268 units from last year.

AVID said total sales were down year-on-year in November, due to supply constraints on high volume models.

For the rest of the year, the AVID is optimistic that total sales will continue to grow as it expects the strong economic performance to be sustained for the last month of the year with steady flow of remittances from overseas Filipino workers, stable inflation environment, growing holiday and election spending as well as low interest rates seen to continue.

“It was a good year for AVID, driven by the persistently positive economic environment,” AVID president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo said.

“Expect an even more bullish performance by AVID members as the year ends, and into 2013,” she said.