Imported vehicles sales up in Feb despite add’l tariff

Despite the imposition of a safeguard duty on imported vehicles, a group of vehicle importers that represents auto brands such as Hyundai saw a slight month-on-month increase in sales in February.

The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors Inc. (Avid) sold 5,401 units in February, a 3-percent increase in sales from the 5,262 units sold in January 2021, the group said in a statement on Monday.

This was despite the fact that the safeguard duty went into effect on Feb. 1. A safeguard duty was imposed on imported vehicles in an effort to protect local car factory jobs at the cost of making imported units more expensive.

The DTI slapped provisional safeguard duties on imported vehicles—P70,000 per unit of imported passenger cars and P110,000 per unit of imported light commercial vehicles.

Avid ‘s February sales, however, were down 15 percent from the 6,342 units sold in the same month last year. Total sales for the for the first two months of 2021 reached 10,663 units, down 10 percent from the comparative period in 2020.

Avid suffered a 41-percent decline in sales to 51,719 units for the entire 2020. Avid said this was due to lockdowns, limited economic activity and weak consumer demand.

Avid, however, also saw a month-on-month increase in December 2020, with sales up by 15 percent to 5,683 units. Avid president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo said the group ended the year on a high note.

“And while we acknowledge that recovery will not come quickly, we remain focused on taking ‘baby steps’ at all fronts of our respective businesses and count on government to heed our call for a more comprehensive and long-term approach to reopening the economy by creating more job opportunities, upgrading infrastructure and logistics, and improving the ease and cost of doing business,” she said.