Typhoons rain down on recovering vehicle sales

The recent slew of typhoons dampened the demand for new vehicles as car and truck manufacturers reported a 32.8-percent decline in volume sales in November as opposed to the same month a year ago, according to an industry head.

A total of 23,162 units were sold in November versus 34,465 in the same month in 2019, data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines,Inc.(Campi) and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) showed.

Pandemic

The pandemic has already badly affected the sales of car makers, forcing dealers to offer alluring promos just to dispose current inventory.Still,the industry saw signs of recovery beginning May, except for another slump in August and then in November.

CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez attributed the recent drop in sales to the consecutive typhoons that badly hit the regions of Bicol, Central Luzon and Metro Manila in November.

Cumulative sales from these regions have declined by 8.3 percent compared to the previous month, he noted.

“We remain optimistic in sustaining this level of sales performance for this month, which is critical for the industry to achieve its sales forecast,” said Gutierrez.

Target

The November figure brings total sales of Campi and TMA so far to 196,197 units, a 41.6-percent drop from the 336,226 units sold in the January to November period of 2019.

The industry is targeting to sell 240,000 units by year end despite the effects of the pandemic. Campi and TMA account for about 88 percent of the auto industry in the country in terms of sales.

There is only one month left to reach that goal which, as history shows, is usually a month when “the industry experiences exponential growth every year.”

If it hits 240,000 unit sales, it would still be nowhere close to where the industry was last year. Campi and TMA nearly sold3 70,000 units last year, whereas the entire industry sold more than 416,000units. INQ