MANILA -The Philippines’ vehicle production continued to increase in September, rising by a little more than a fifth as most of its neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) suffered varying declines during the month.
Data released by the Asean Automotive Federation, an umbrella group of industry associations from member economies of the regional bloc, showed that local production increased by 23 percent, with 10,822 units of vehicles assembled in the country during the month.
Thailand, which remains the biggest producer, saw its production drop by 8.4 percent with an output of 164,093 units.
Indonesia had a more prominent production decline of 23.8 percent to 110,401 units, while Malaysia saw a slight output drop of 0.4 percent to 69,133 units.
Vietnam had the deepest decline, at 24 percent, during the month with its assembly of 14,596 vehicle units.
Aside from the Philippines, only Myanmar experienced growth among the six Asean countries that have their own production hubs in September, as its output rebounded to 206 units from the measly 9 units assembled in the country in the same month last year.
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In total, the six countries produced 369,251 vehicle units in September, bringing their combined year-to-date production to 3,222,652 units.
This marks a 1.4-percent increase compared to the 3,178,316 vehicle units assembled during the same nine-month period in 2022.
Quite similarly, the Philippines was also the only country, which posted an increase in the production of motorcycles and scooters in September among five countries with assembly lines in Asean.
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While only fourth in terms of production volume, the Philippines recorded a 4.6 percent growth as production increased to 92,861 units from the 88,767 units assembled in the same month last year.
The top producer of these two-wheeled vehicles is still Indonesia, which saw its output contract by 4.8 percent to 561,264 units.
Vietnam, which produced 218,673 units, recorded a decline of 35.5 percent, while Thailand saw its assembly output drop by 14.4 percent to 169,054 units.
Malaysia posted the deepest decline at 41.2 percent, as its output plummeted to 38,928 units from the 66,155 units in September of last year.
The five Asean countries produced a total of 1,080,780 units of motorcycles and scooters during the month, driving the output volume during the entire nine-month period to increase by 10.4 percent to 10,136,499 units.