Imported vehicle sales up 30% in August
The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (Avid) reported a 30-percent improvement in the year-on-year sales of its members in August despite the softening of the market since January 2013.
Avid data showed that its members collectively ended August this year with sales of 2,411 units of vehicles against 1,858 in the same month last year.
Year-to-date figures show sales reaching 20,558 units this year from 19,876 units in the same period last year. Avid attributed the year-to-date sales increase of 3 percent to the “strong showing of both the passenger cars and light commercial vehicles segments in August.
Both the passenger cars (PC) and light commercial vehicles (LCV) segments exhibited “exceptional performances” during the so-called ghost month of August, when business activities traditionally slow down.
PC sales grew by 20 percent to 1,368 units in Aug. 2013 while LCV sales were up by 46 percent for a total of 1,043 units.
The PC segment’s performance in August gave the category “a much needed boost” to ease the downtrend seen in the first seven months of the year. The eight-month car sales hit 10,535 units, still 13 percent down from the 12,049 units sold last year.
LCVs, meanwhile, grew by 28 percent in the first eight months to 10,023 units sold from 7,827 units through August of 2012.
The decline in the year-to-date sales of cars was more than offset by the growth in commercial vehicle sales, such that total imported vehicle sales to date still grew by 3 percent.
“The country’s better than expected economic growth thus far this year is yet another positive validation of a bullish outlook not only for the Philippines, but for the local automotive industry as well,” Avid president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo said in a statement.
Helped by resilient economic fundamentals and accelerated government spending, the Philippine economy expanded by 7.5 percent in the second quarter amid the anticipation of United States addressing its economic slowdown and eased political tensions in Syria.
