Vehicle sales still on high gear in September as demand picks up

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Local motor vehicle sales continued to rev up in September with the return of consumer demand, although the pace was slower than the all-time high in August when sales almost doubled, according to industry statistics released on Tuesday.

A joint report by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) showed automobile firms sold a combined 35,282 units in September, gaining by 64.2 percent from the 21,493 units sold in the same month last year.

Back in August, unit sales surged by 90.5 percent – the highest so far this year – to reach 30,185.

“The automotive industry foresees a continued growth in the latter part of the year, benefiting from the improving economy based on the recent growth forecast of 6.5 percent this year—attributed to strong domestic demand and continued easing of pandemic restrictions,” Campi president Rommel Gutierrez said in a statement.

The September sales brought total units sold in the first nine months to 248,154, a healthy 29.5-percent growth from sales in the same nine-month period in 2021.

The local automotive industry is targeting to sell 336,000 units by the end of 2022.

Consumer spending

In an interview with reporters last month, Gutierrez expressed optimism that the local automotive industry will hit its target this year, banking on consumer spending to pick up as the holiday season approaches.

“Normally December or [toward] the end of the year, sales are picking up. We hope that this would continue,” Gutierrez said, adding that consumer confidence remains while automotive firms are implementing a variety of marketing promotions.

The global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic almost three years ago hit the local car industry hard, with local automobile firms going from a yearly sale of 369,941 units in 2019 to 223,793 units in 2020.

For more than a decade before the pandemic, motor vehicle sales in the Philippines have been growing steadily at a rate of around 20 to 30 percent a year.

Motor vehicle production was also deeply affected according to the Asean Automotive Federation back in 2020, plunging by 29 percent.

The Philippines went from producing 95,094 vehicle units in 2019 to just 67,297 in 2020.

In 2018, former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said the output value of the Philippines’ automotive industry reached more than P300 billion in 2017, equivalent to about 4 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product. INQ