Honda expects sales to recover in ’12

Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) expects sales to recover this year as anticipated amid a stabilized supply chain and growth in the domestic economy, a top company official said.

At the sidelines of the launch of the full variant lineup of the all-new Civic, HCPI president and general manager Tatsuya Natsume said the company was aiming to get sales back to 2010 levels at 16,600 units.

That would be about 43 percent higher than the 11,611 units sold in 2011, when the company’s supply chain got disrupted by the triple tragedy in Japan (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident) and the flooding that hit Honda’s factory in Thailand.

“We expect the market to grow by 2 percent this year and we would like to come back at least to the level of 2010 which was not affected by the tsunami, earthquake and flood. After we achieve that, we can go even further,” Natsume said.

HCPI sold 5,961 units in the first six months of the year from 6,991 units in the same period in 2011, according to company data.

Sales of the all-new Civic started full blast in March and 1,274 units have been sold as of end-June, HCPI said.

Natsume said HCPI was optimistic about the domestic car market since the economy had been growing and consumer spending was being supported not only by local businesses but also by consistently robust remittances.

“At the time we launched the all-new Civic in February, we only had one variant—the 1.8 EXI Special Edition. And yet, the all-new Civic has been well received and has sold more than 1,200 units to date,” Natsume said at Honda Cars Global City.