Vehicle sales up 41% in September

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine automotive sector continued its stellar performance in September, as it posted a 41.7-percent surge in vehicle sales to 20,924 units, reportedly a record high in monthly sales of members of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi).

This brought total vehicle sales from January to September this year to 169,727 units—up 29.2 percent from the 131,381 units sold in the same period in 2013, data from Campi and Truck Manufacturers Association showed.

“We are beyond grateful for the strong patronage and trust of our market especially with the new products lined up for them. The exceptionally strong sales we have achieved for the past months, especially the unprecedented growth this September, prove that the automotive industry is continuously growing and aiming for better results,” said Campi president Rommel Gutierrez. “With this, we are going to keep an eye on the remaining months of this year and expect to deliver increased sales.”

The continuing uptrend in vehicle sales was mainly due to the introduction of new models and equally aggressive promotional support given by automotive companies.

Both the passenger car and commercial vehicle segments posted strong growth, increasing by 50.9 percent and 18.5 percent respectively in the first nine months of the year.

The month of September saw equally robust sales with the passenger cars (PC) segment growing by 65.1 percent to 8,477 units, while sales in the commercial vehicles (CV) segment rose 29.3 percent to 12,447 units.

In the CV segment alone, all categories exceeded the sales of September 2013. Sales of light commercial vehicles were up by 38.1 percent to 8,111 units, while Asian utility vehicles (AUVs) accounted for 3,836 units—up 15.4 percent from a year ago.

For 2014, total vehicle sales are expected to exceed 260,000 units, much higher than the forecasts made by Campi, Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. president Michinobu Sugata said on the sidelines of a motor show last month.

Campi previously raised its sales forecast this year to 250,000 units from the 230,000-unit target announced earlier this year. Last year, total vehicle sales reached over 210,000 units.

Toyota remained the market leader with 45.2 percent share, having sold 76,631 units from January to September, followed by Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp., with 21.9 percent share (37,222 units). Ford Motor Philippines took the third spot with an 8.6-percent share (14,564 units); followed by Isuzu Philippines Corp., with a 5.7-percent share (9,630 units); and Honda Cars Philippines Inc., with a 5.6-percent market share (9,574 units).