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Auto imports rebound in first quarter
Auto imports in April hit an estimated 5,500 units, worth US$122 million, according to a report from the General Statistics Office.
In the first four months of this year, imports reached 21,000 units valued at $400 million, marking a year-on-year increase of 60 per cent in volume and 75.2 per cent in value, the office said.
The rebound was partly attributed to a return to a stable foreign exchange market.
Most experts and traders had been optimistic about the market recovery this year after the sharp dip last year due to the global recession.
A report by the Viet Nam Automobile Manufacturers' Association said that last year 150,000 units were sold in the country, a year-on-year decrease of 17 per cent.
Automobile manufacturers, however, failed to make major investments in production, even though the auto market is rapidly expanding in Viet Nam, with an average of 100,000 cars sold annually compared to just 5,000 to 7,000 in annual sales ten years ago. Most of the well-known automobile brand names are raising their profiles in Viet Nam. However, there were only 100 enterprises in the country which could provide car parts to assemblers, and these enterprises could only make simple parts.
Speaking at a recent conference on the auto industry, deputy minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang said the percentage of locally made parts in vehicles remained very low.
"The most important parts in cars cannot be made domestically," said Quang.
However, many Vietnamese automobile manufacturers said they now wanted to better integrate themselves into the global car production chain to further develop the domestic industry.
"We should strive to join the global production chain by providing high quality and competitive products," said general director of Truong Hai Automobile Joint Stock Company Tran Ba Duong.
vietnamnews
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