Vehicle sales pick up pace in 7 months

MANILA, Philippines — Vehicle sales further picked up in July, finally bringing year-to-date take-up at a faster pace than last year to signal a recovery for the local automotive industry.

A joint report of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) and Truck Manufacturers Association Inc. (TMA) released yesterday showed total sales reached 205,945 units in the seven months to July, higher by 3.16 percent than the 199,628 units last year.

While total sales went up, sales of passenger cars (PC) were still down 1.8 percent to 61,815 units as of end-July from 62,959 units the previous year.

Commercial vehicle (CV) sales, on the other hand, rose 5.5 percent to 144,130 units in the January to July period from 136,669 units a year ago.

For the month of July alone, combined sales of CAMPI and TMA climbed 13.5 percent to 31,810 units from 28,038 units last year.

PC sales in July noticeably grew 34.7 percent to 9,397 units from the previous year’s 6,975 units.

CV sales also increased 6.4 percent to 22,413 units from last year’s 21,063 units.

Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. maintained its leadership with a 42.52 percent market share as of end-July.

Taking the second spot was Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. with a 17.47 percent market share, followed by Nissan Philippines Inc. with 12 percent.

On fourth place was Suzuki Philippines Inc. with 6.37 percent market share, while Ford Motor Co. Philippines Inc. occupied the fifth spot with 6.36 percent.

“It is noteworthy that positive factors such as continued and strong sales campaigns and stable supply of units have outweighed the unfavorable effects of the off-peak season to the overall sales growth. Historically, July is considered as one of the lean months of the industry. Nonetheless, we are optimistic that if we are able to sustain this growth trend, we will be able to exceed our sales performance of last year,” CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez said.

Full year sales of CAMPI and TMA in 2018 declined 16 percent to 357,410 units from 425,673 units in 2017, as higher taxes on automobiles weakened demand for cars.