2019 vehicle sales up 3.5%

Truck and car manufacturers sold nearly 370,000 units last year, a 3.5-percent growth from a year-ago as they move to recover the momentum they lost in 2018.

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

Data showed that Campi and TMA member-companies sold a total of 369,941 units in 2019, up from the 357,410 units sold in the previous year.

Auto sales in December gave the final push, as data showed that 33,715 units were sold in the last month of 2019, up by 5.5 percent from the 31,945 units sold in the same month in 2018.

2018 has been a tough year for the industry, as fewer Filipinos wanted new cars when the Duterte administration began slapping higher excise taxes. The elevated inflation during the year also dampened demand.

Volume sales dropped by 16 percent in 2018, the worst full-year sales performance of Campi and TMA since the financial crisis in 1998.

The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors Inc. (Avid) has yet to issue a sales report for 2019.

Earlier, Campi president Rommel Gutierrez said the industry was targeting an overall volume sale of 410,000 units in 2019, with Campi-TMA accounting for 89 percent while Avid member-firms would account for the remaining 11 percent.

To account hit this target, Campi-TMA had to sell 364,900 units last year, which the groups were able to exceed. Avid, on the other hand, had to sell 45,100 units.

There were 109,197 units of passenger cars sold last year, up by a mere 0.2 percent from 2018. This segment slid 0.6 percent in December to 9,246 units compared to the same month in 2018.

The commercial vehicles segment sold 260,744 units last year, a 5-percent growth from 2018. The December sales of this segment marked an 8.1 percent growth to 24,469 units. INQ