Posted on 12 Jul 2013
Motor vehicle sales grew 20 percent in the first semester this year despite declines in most categories in the month of June, official industry report showed.
A joint report by the Chamber of Automobile Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association showed total vehicle sales of 87,226 units in the first six months of the year as against 72,871 units in the same period last year.
The passenger car segment contributed 28,035 units or 28 percent higher than the units sold in the same period last year while the commercial vehicle segment sold the bulk of 59,191 units or 16 percent increase over the same period in 2012.
All categories under the commercial vehicle segment posted growth with the Asian utility vehicle posting a 1.5 percent growth for sales of 19,981 units from 19,678 units in the first semester last year.
Sales of light commercial vehicles (LCV) or the sport utility vehicles grew by 25.3 percent to 36,991 units from 29,530 units last year. Notably, the first semester LCV sales account for 57.94 percent of the total commercial vehicle sales segment.
The light trucks category sold 1,251 units in the January-June period or 18.8 percent more than 1,053 units in the comparative period while trucks and buses considerably grew by 37.9 percent to 968 units from 702 units last year.
However, on a month on month basis, sales based on motor vehicles segments and categories posted considerable declines except for the light trucks category.
The CAMPI data showed that overall motor vehicle sales for the month of June suffered a setback with 10.2 percent decline to 14,239 units from 15,859 units sold in May. The passenger car segment suffered the sharpest decline of 20.6 percent as sales in June only reached 4,132 units from 5,201 units sold in May. The commercial segment also posted a moderate sales reduction of 5.2 percent to 10,107 units from 10,658 units in May.
On a per category basis, there were only 3,350 AUVs sold in June or a modest 3.2 percent decline versus May’s sales of 3,461 units while LCV sales dropped 6.8 percent to 6,311 units from 6,775 units. Sales of trucks and buses also posted a negative 4 percent growth to 190 from 198 units sold in the month of May.
The only category that posted growth was the light trucks with a credible 14.3 percent increase to 256 unit sales in June from 224 units in the previous month of May.
CAMPI President Atty. Rommel Gutierrez explained that the decline in sales for the month of June was expected considering that June is mostly dedicated to school opening expenses.
In addition, the announcement of introduction of full model change and entry of new models by the major players has slightly delayed the purchasing decision from the consumers.
“With this excellent performance for the first semester and expected higher sales in the coming months, the industry is confident that it will reach and even exceed the initial 200,000 sales volume target for the entire year,” Gutierrez said.
