October sales rev up confidence of car, truck makers

Truck and car manufacturers sold 33,150 units in October this year, the biggest in monthly sales achieved so far as the market moved to recover from a recent slump.

This was according to a joint report by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (Campi) and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) released Thursday.

“The current market demand for vehicles along with creative and aggressive sales promotion efforts give us a positive outlook as we aim to sustain the growth trend for the remaining months of the year,” said Campi president Rommel Gutierrez.

October sales went up by 8.1 percent from the same month last year, data showed. For the 10-month period, volume sales reached 301,761 units, up 2.53 percent from the 294,311 units sold in the comparative period a year ago.

The recent figures give Campi and TMA, which both account for a bulk of the local industry’s total sales, some optimism that 2019 would be a better year compared to 2018.

Passenger car sales dropped 0.2 percent to 90,400 units for the January to October period. But this was cushioned by the 3.8-percent growth in commercial vehicle sales, which reached  211,361 units.

The auto industry was still trying to recover from last year’s huge drop in volume sales, as demand fell under the weight of the Duterte administration’s higher excise taxes coupled with high inflation rates.

Volume sales dropped 16 percent last year, the industry’s worst full-year sales performance since the financial crisis in 1998.

The latest growth story might only be a temporary relief, since another storm is in the horizon.

The industry would have to deal with the impact of two protectionist measures that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was considering.

The DTI is studying a petition for a safeguard measure to protect local workers affected by the importation of vehicles. It is also considering to slap tariffs on vehicles from Thailand, an act of retaliation prompted by a long standing trade dispute over the imports of Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing, Inc.