Hyundai sales down 4% due to supply woes

Sales of Hyundai vehicles in the country slipped 4 percent to 13,271 units in the January-August period, from 13,757 units in the same period last year.

According to data from official distributor Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (Hari), sales plunged 26 percent in August alone to 1,419 units, from the previous year’s 1,921 units, due to supply constraints.

“Combined with the seasonal downtrend in auto sales for August, global demand-supply gap continues to affect the timeliness of product delivery which, in turn, leads to increased unmet orders for Hari and deter more positive sales outcomes,” the company said in a statement Friday.

From January to August, Hari sold 7,030 units of light commercial vehicles, a 9-percent drop from the 7,728 units sold in the same period last year. Passenger car sales, on the other hand, rose 4 percent as of end-August to 6,241 units, from the previous year’s 6,029 units.

In August alone, LCV sales were actually better at 828 units, from last year’s 807 units. It was the passenger car category that dealt a huge blow to Hari’s August and eight-month sales figures, with the number of such vehicles sold last month plunging 47 percent to just 591 units, from the 1,114 units sold the year before.

But based on demand alone, Hari remains positive that sales will go up in the coming months now that the supply situation is starting to improve.

The distributor is also banking on the holiday buying season and increased overseas Filipino worker remittances in the fourth quarter to prop up its sales for the rest of the year.